Lamentations 5

1 Remember, O LORD, what has happened to us. Look and see our disgrace!

1 Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.

2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to foreigners.

2 Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.

3 We have become fatherless orphans; our mothers are widows.

3 We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.

4 We must buy the water we drink; our wood comes at a price.

4 We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.

5 We are closely pursued; we are weary and find no rest.

5 Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest.

6 We submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get enough bread.

6 We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.

7 Our fathers sinned and are no more, but we bear their punishment.

7 Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities.

8 Slaves rule over us; there is no one to deliver us from their hands.

8 Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand.

9 We get our bread at the risk of our lives because of the sword in the wilderness.

9 We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness.

10 Our skin is as hot as an oven with fever from our hunger.

10 Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.

11 Women have been ravished in Zion, virgins in the cities of Judah.

11 They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.

12 Princes have been hung up by their hands; elders receive no respect.

12 Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured.

13 Young men toil at millstones; boys stagger under loads of wood.

13 They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.

14 The elders have left the city gate; the young men have stopped their music.

14 The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick.

15 Joy has left our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning.

15 The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.

16 The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned!

16 The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!

17 Because of this, our hearts are faint; because of these, our eyes grow dim—

17 For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.

18 because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate, patrolled by foxes.

18 Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.

19 You, O LORD, reign forever; Your throne endures from generation to generation.

19 Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.

20 Why have You forgotten us forever? Why have You forsaken us for so long?

20 Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?

21 Restore us to Yourself, O LORD, so we may return; renew our days as of old,

21 Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.

22 unless You have utterly rejected us and remain angry with us beyond measure.

22 But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.