Lamentations



Chapter 5

The People of Jerusalem Pray:

   1 O LORD, reflect on what has happened to us; consider and look at our disgrace.
   2 Our inheritance is turned over to strangers; foreigners now occupy our homes.
   3 We have become fatherless orphans; our mothers have become widows.
   4 We must pay money for our own water; we must buy our own wood at a steep price.
   5 We are pursued - they are breathing down our necks; we are weary and have no rest.
   6 We have submitted to Egypt and Assyria in order to buy food to eat.
   7 Our forefathers sinned and are dead, but we suffer their punishment.
   8 Slaves rule over us; there is no one to rescue us from their power.
   9 At the risk of our lives we get our food because robbers lurk in the countryside.
   10 Our skin is hot as an oven due to a fever from hunger.
   11 They raped women in Zion, virgins in the towns of Judah.
   12 Princes were hung by their hands; elders were mistreated.
   13 The young men perform menial labor; boys stagger from their labor.
   14 The elders are gone from the city gate; the young men have stopped playing their music.
   15 Our hearts no longer have any joy; our dancing is turned to mourning.
   16 The crown has fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned!
   17 Because of this, our hearts are sick; because of these things, we can hardly see through our tears.
   18 For wild animals are prowling over Mount Zion, which lies desolate.
   19 But you, O LORD, reign forever; your throne endures from generation to generation.
   20 Why do you keep on forgetting us? Why do you forsake us so long?
   21 Bring us back to yourself, O LORD, so that we may return to you; renew our life as in days before,
   22 unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure.