¹ Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us;
Look, and see our reproach!
² Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
Our houses to aliens.
³ We have become orphans without a father,
Our mothers are like widows.
⁴ We have to pay for our drinking water,
Our wood comes to us at a price.
⁵ Our pursuers are at our necks;
We are worn out, there is no rest for us.
⁶ We have submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get enough bread.
⁷ Our fathers sinned, and are no more;
It is we who have borne their iniquities.
⁸ Slaves rule over us;
There is no one to deliver us from their hand.
⁹ We get our bread at the risk of our lives
Because of the sword in the wilderness.
¹⁰ Our skin has become as hot as an oven,
Because of the burning heat of famine.
¹¹ They ravished the women in Zion,
The virgins in the cities of Judah.
¹² Princes were hung by their hands;
Elders were not respected.
¹³ Young men worked at the grinding mill,
And youths stumbled under loads of wood.
¹⁴ Elders are gone from the gate,
Young men from their music.
¹⁵ The joy of our hearts has ceased;
Our dancing has been turned into mourning.
¹⁶ The crown has fallen from our head;
Woe to us, for we have sinned!
¹⁷ Because of this our heart is faint,
Because of these things our eyes are dim;
¹⁸ Because of Mount Zion which lies desolate,
Foxes prowl in it.
¹⁹ You, O Lord, rule forever;
Your throne is from generation to generation.
²⁰ Why do You forget us forever?
Why do You forsake us so long?
²¹ Restore us to You, O Lord, that we may be restored;
Renew our days as of old,
²² Unless You have utterly rejected us
And are exceedingly angry with us.