Lamentations 5

1 Keep in mind, O Lord, what has come to us: take note and see our shame.

Remember, O Lord, what has happened to us: behold, and look on our reproach.

2 Our heritage is given up to men of strange lands, our houses to those who are not our countrymen.

Our inheritance has been turned away to aliens, our houses to strangers:

3 We are children without fathers, our mothers are like widows.

we are become orphans, we have no father, our mothers are as widows.

4 We give money for a drink of water, we get our wood for a price.

We have drunk our water for money; our wood is sold to us [for a burden] on our neck:

5 Our attackers are on our necks: overcome with weariness, we have no rest.

we have been persecuted, we have laboured, we have had no rest.

6 We have given our hands to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians so that we might have enough bread.

Egypt gave the hand [to us], Assur to their own satisfaction.

7 Our fathers were sinners and are dead; and the weight of their evil-doing is on us.

Our fathers sinned, [and] are not: we have borne their iniquities.

8 Servants are ruling over us, and there is no one to make us free from their hands.

Servants have ruled over us: there is none to ransom [us] out of their hand.

9 We put our lives in danger to get our bread, because of the sword of the waste land.

We shall bring in our bread with [danger of] our lives, because of the sword of the wilderness.

10 Our skin is heated like an oven because of our burning heat from need of food.

Our skin is blackened like an oven; they are convulsed, because of the storms of famine.

11 They took by force the women in Zion, the virgins in the towns of Judah.

They humbled the women in Sion, the virgins in the cities of Juda.

12 Their hands put princes to death by hanging: the faces of old men were not honoured.

Princes were hanged up by their hands: the elders were not honored.

13 The young men were crushing the grain, and the boys were falling under the wood.

The chosen men lifted up [the voice in] weeping, and the youths fainted under the wood.

14 The old men are no longer seated in the doorway, and the music of the young men has come to an end.

And the elders ceased from the gate, the chosen men ceased from their music.

15 The joy of our hearts is ended; our dancing is changed into sorrow.

The joy of our heart has ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.

16 The crown has been taken from our head: sorrow is ours, for we are sinners.

The crown has fallen [from] our head: yes, woe to us! for we have sinned.

17 Because of this our hearts are feeble; for these things our eyes are dark;

For this has grief come; our heart is sorrowful: for this our eyes are darkened.

18 Because of the mountain of Zion which is a waste; jackals go over it.

Over the mountain of Sion, because it is made desolate, foxes have walked therein.

19 You, O Lord, are seated as King for ever; the seat of your power is eternal.

But you, O Lord, shall dwell for ever; your throne [shall endure] to generation and generation.

20 Why have we gone from your memory for ever? why have you been turned away from us for so long?

Therefore will you utterly forget us, and abandon us a long time?

21 Make us come back to you, O Lord, and let us be turned; make our days new again as in the past.

Turn us, O Lord, to you, and we shall be turned; and renew our days as before.

22 But you have quite given us up; you are full of wrath against us.

For you have indeed rejected us; you have been very angry against us.