Lamentations 5

1Remember, O Lord, what has happened to us: behold, and look on our reproach.

2Our inheritance has been turned away to aliens, our houses to strangers:

3we are become orphans, we have no father, our mothers are as widows.

4We have drunk our water for money; our wood is sold to us [for a burden] on our neck:

5we have been persecuted, we have laboured, we have had no rest.

6Egypt gave the hand [to us], Assur to their own satisfaction.

7Our fathers sinned, [and] are not: we have borne their iniquities.

8Servants have ruled over us: there is none to ransom [us] out of their hand.

9We shall bring in our bread with [danger of] our lives, because of the sword of the wilderness.

10Our skin is blackened like an oven; they are convulsed, because of the storms of famine.

11They humbled the women in Sion, the virgins in the cities of Juda.

12Princes were hanged up by their hands: the elders were not honoured.

13The chosen men lifted up [the voice in] weeping, and the youths fainted under the wood.

14And the elders ceased from the gate, the chosen men ceased from their music.

15The joy of our heart has ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.

16The crown has fallen [from] our head: yea, woe to us! for we have sinned.

17For this has grief come; our heart is sorrowful: for this our eyes are darkened.

18Over the mountain of Sion, because it is made desolate, foxes have walked therein.

19But thou, O Lord, shalt dwell for ever; thy throne [shall endure] to generation and generation.

20Wherefore wilt thou utterly forget us, and abandon us a long time?

21Turn us, O Lord, to thee, and we shall be turned; and renew our days as before.

22For thou hast indeed rejected us; thou hast been very wroth against us.