[1] Remember, O LORD, what has come upon us; look, and see our reproach! [2] Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners. [3] We have become orphans and fatherless; our mothers are like widows. [4] We must pay for the water we drink; our wood is sold to us. [5] Our pursuers are at our necks; we labor and have no rest. [6] We have given our hand to Egypt and to Assyria, to be satisfied with bread. [7] Our fathers sinned and are no more, but we bear their iniquities. [8] Slaves rule over us; there is no one to deliver us from their hand. [9] We get our bread at the peril of our lives, because of the sword in the wilderness. [10] Our skin is hot as an oven, because of the terrible famine. [11] They ravished the women in Zion, the virgins in the cities of Judah. [12] Princes were hung up by their hands, the faces of elders were not honored. [13] Young men ground at the millstones; boys staggered under loads of wood. [14] The elders have left the city gate, the young men stopped their music. [15] The joy of our hearts has ceased; our dancing has turned into mourning. [16] The crown has fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned! [17] For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes grow dim; [18] because of Mount Zion, which is desolate, with foxes walking upon it. [19] You, O LORD, remain forever; Your throne endures from generation to generation. [20] Why do You forget us forever, and forsake us for so long a time? [21] Restore us to Yourself, O LORD, that we may return! Renew our days as of old, [22] unless You have utterly rejected us, and are very angry with us.
