[1] LORD, remember what has happened to us. See how we have been disgraced! [2] Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners. [3] We are orphaned and fatherless. Our mothers are widowed. [4] We have to pay for water to drink, and even firewood is expensive. [5] Those who pursue us are at our heels; we are exhausted but are given no rest. [6] We submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get enough food to survive. [7] Our ancestors sinned, but they have died- and we are suffering the punishment they deserved! [8] Slaves have now become our masters; there is no one left to rescue us. [9] We hunt for food at the risk of our lives, for violence rules the countryside. [10] The famine has blackened our skin as though baked in an oven. [11] Our enemies rape the women in Jerusalem and the young girls in all the towns of Judah. [12] Our princes are being hanged by their thumbs, and our elders are treated with contempt. [13] Young men are led away to work at millstones, and boys stagger under heavy loads of wood. [14] The elders no longer sit in the city gates; the young men no longer dance and sing. [15] Joy has left our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning. [16] The garlands have fallen from our heads. Weep for us because we have sinned. [17] Our hearts are sick and weary, and our eyes grow dim with tears. [18] For Jerusalem is empty and desolate, a place haunted by jackals. [19] But LORD, you remain the same forever! Your throne continues from generation to generation. [20] Why do you continue to forget us? Why have you abandoned us for so long? [21] Restore us, O LORD, and bring us back to you again! Give us back the joys we once had! [22] Or have you utterly rejected us? Are you angry with us still?
