Lamentations 5:1-22 - A Request For Mercy

¹ Yahweh, remember what has happened to us.
Look, and see our disgrace!
² Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
our houses to foreigners.
³ We have become orphans, fatherless;
our mothers are widows.
⁴ We must pay for the water we drink;
our wood comes at a price.
⁵ We are closely pursued;
we are tired, and no one offers us rest.
⁶ We made a treaty with Egypt
and with Assyria, to get enough food.
⁷ Our fathers sinned; they no longer exist,
but we bear their punishment.
⁸ Slaves rule over us;
no one rescues us from their hands.
⁹ We secure our food at the risk of our lives
because of the sword in the wilderness.
¹⁰ Our skin is as hot as an oven
from the ravages of hunger.
¹¹ Women are raped in Zion,
girls in the cities of Judah.
¹² Princes are hung up by their hands;
elders are shown no respect.
¹³ Young men labor at millstones;
boys stumble under loads of wood.
¹⁴ The elders have left the city gate,
the young men, their music.
¹⁵ Joy has left 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 heart is sick;
because of these, our eyes grow dim:
¹⁸ because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate
and has jackals prowling in it.
¹⁹ You, Lord, are enthroned forever;
Your throne endures from generation to generation.
²⁰ Why have You forgotten us forever,
abandoned us for our entire lives?
²¹ Lord, restore us to Yourself, so we may return;
renew our days as in former times,
²² unless You have completely rejected us
and are intensely angry with us.