Lamentations
Chapter 5
1 Remember, God, what has happened to us; look, and see our disgrace.
2 Our property has gone to outsiders, our homes to foreigners.
3 We are like children without parents; our mothers are like women whose husbands have died.
4 We have to buy our own water to drink; we must pay for the wood we use.
5 We are persecuted and work hard without rest.
6 We have submitted to the Egyptians and Assyrians to have enough bread.
7 Our ancestors did wrong, they are gone; and we suffer for their sins.
8 Slaves have become our masters: no one saves us from their power.
9 We get our bread at the risk of our lives because of the danger in the desert.
10 Our skin turned very dark as if burned because of the terrible hunger.
11 They assaulted the women in Zion, and the young women in the towns of Judah.
12 Leaders are hung by their hands; the faces of the old are not respected.
13 They made the young men work at grinding grain, and the children stumbled under heavy loads of wood.
14 The older leaders no longer sit in the city gates, and the young men have stopped their music.
15 Our happiness has ended; our dancing has changed to sadness.
16 Our crown has fallen: sad for us, because we have done wrong!
17 Because of this, we are discouraged; for these things, our vision is blurred.
18 Because Mount Zion is empty, foxes walk on it.
19 You, God, last forever; your rule goes on from one generation to the next.
20 Why do you forget us forever and abandon us for such a long time?
21 Bring us back to you, God, and we will return; make our days like they used to be.
22 You have completely rejected us; you are very angry with us.