Lamentations 5

Restore Us to Yourself, O  Lord

1  a Remember, O  Lord, what has befallen us;
look, and see b our disgrace!
 2  c Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
our homes to foreigners.
 3 We have become orphans, fatherless;
our mothers are like widows.
 4 We must pay for the water we drink;
the wood we get must be bought.
 5  d Our pursuers are at our necks; ▼
▼ Symmachus With a yoke on our necks

we are weary; we are given no rest.
 6 We have given the hand to f Egypt, and to g Assyria,
to get bread enough.
 7 Our fathers sinned, and are no more;
h and we bear their iniquities.
 8  i Slaves rule over us;
there is none to deliver us from their hand.
 9  j We get our bread at the peril of our lives,
because of the sword in the wilderness.
 10  k Our skin is hot as an oven
with l the burning heat of famine.
 11 Women are raped in Zion,
young women in the towns of Judah.
 12  m Princes are hung up by their hands;
n no respect is shown to the elders.
 13 Young men are compelled to o grind at the mill,
and boys stagger p under loads of wood.
 14  q The old men have left the city gate,
the young men r their music.
 15  s The joy of our hearts has ceased;
t our dancing has been turned to mourning.
 16  u The crown has fallen from our head;
woe to us, for we have sinned!
 17 For this v our heart has become sick,
for these things w our eyes have grown dim,
 18 for Mount Zion which lies desolate;
x jackals prowl over it.
 19  y But you, O  Lord, reign forever;
your throne endures to all generations.
 20  z Why do you forget us forever,
why do you forsake us for so many days?
 21  aa Restore us to yourself, O  Lord, that we may be restored!
Renew our days as of old—
 22  ab unless you have utterly rejected us,
and you remain exceedingly angry with us.
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