NETfree - Lamentations - 5

5:1  O LORD, reflect on what has happened to us; consider and look at our disgrace.

5:2  Our inheritance is turned over to strangers; foreigners now occupy our homes.

5:3  We have become fatherless orphans; our mothers have become widows.

5:4  We must pay money for our own water; we must buy our own wood at a steep price.

5:5  We are pursued - they are breathing down our necks; we are weary and have no rest.

5:6  We have submitted to Egypt and Assyria in order to buy food to eat.

5:7  Our forefathers sinned and are dead, but we suffer their punishment.

5:8  Slaves rule over us; there is no one to rescue us from their power.

5:9  At the risk of our lives we get our food because robbers lurk in the countryside.

5:10  Our skin is hot as an oven due to a fever from hunger.

5:11  They raped women in Zion, virgins in the towns of Judah.

5:12  Princes were hung by their hands; elders were mistreated.

5:13  The young men perform menial labor; boys stagger from their labor.

5:14  The elders are gone from the city gate; the young men have stopped playing their music.

5:15  Our hearts no longer have any joy; our dancing is turned to mourning.

5:16  The crown has fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned!

5:17  Because of this, our hearts are sick; because of these things, we can hardly see through our tears.

5:18  For wild animals are prowling over Mount Zion, which lies desolate.

5:19  But you, O LORD, reign forever; your throne endures from generation to generation.

5:20  Why do you keep on forgetting us? Why do you forsake us so long?

5:21  Bring us back to yourself, O LORD, so that we may return to you; renew our life as in days before,

5:22  unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure.