Lamentations 5

New International Version

• 1. Remember, O LORD, what has happened to us; look, and see our disgrace.
• 2. Our inheritance has been turned over to aliens, our homes to foreigners.
• 3. We have become orphans and fatherless, our mothers like widows.
• 4. We must buy the water we drink; our wood can be had only at a price.
• 5. Those who pursue us are at our heels; we are weary and find no rest.
• 6. We submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get enough bread.
• 7. Our fathers sinned and are no more, and we bear their punishment.
• 8. Slaves rule over us, and there is none to free us from their hands.
• 9. We get our bread at the risk of our lives because of the sword in the desert.
• 10. Our skin is hot as an oven, feverish from hunger.
• 11. Women have been ravished in Zion, and virgins in the towns of Judah.
• 12. Princes have been hung up by their hands; elders are shown no respect.
• 13. Young men toil at the millstones; boys stagger under loads of wood.
• 14. The elders are gone from the city gate; the young men have stopped their music.
• 15. Joy is gone from our hearts; our dancing has 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 faint, because of these things our eyes grow dim
• 18. for Mount Zion, which lies desolate, with jackals prowling over it.
• 19. You, O LORD, reign forever; your throne endures from generation to generation.
• 20. Why do you always forget us? Why do you forsake us so long?
• 21. Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may return; renew our days as of old
• 22. unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure.

New International Version