Lamentations 5

1Keep in mind, O Lord, what has come to us: take note and see our shame.

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

2Our heritage is given up to men of strange lands, our houses to those who are not our countrymen.

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

3We are children without fathers, our mothers are like widows.

3We are become orphans without a father: our mothers are as widows.

4We give money for a drink of water, we get our wood for a price.

4We have drunk our water for money: we have bought our wood.

5Our attackers are on our necks: overcome with weariness, we have no rest.

5We were dragged by the necks, we were weary and no rest was given us.

6We have given our hands to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians so that we might have enough bread.

6We have given our hand to Egypt, and to the Assyrians, that we might be satisfied with bread.

7Our fathers were sinners and are dead; and the weight of their evil-doing is on us.

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

8Servants are ruling over us, and there is no one to make us free from their hands.

8Servants have ruled over us: there was none to redeem us out of their hand.

9We put our lives in danger to get our bread, because of the sword of the waste land.

9We fetched our bread at the peril of our lives, because of the sword in the desert.

10Our skin is heated like an oven because of our burning heat from need of food.

10Our skin was burnt as an oven, by reason of the violence of the famine.

11They took by force the women in Zion, the virgins in the towns of Judah.

11They oppressed the women in Sion, and the virgins in the cities of Juda.

12Their hands put princes to death by hanging: the faces of old men were not honoured.

12The princes were hanged up by their hand: they did not respect the persons of the ancients.

13The young men were crushing the grain, and the boys were falling under the wood.

13They abused the young men indecently: and the children fell under the wood.

14The old men are no longer seated in the doorway, and the music of the young men has come to an end.

14The ancients have ceased from the gates: the young men from the choir of the singers.

15The joy of our hearts is ended; our dancing is changed into sorrow.

15The joy of our heart is ceased, our dancing is turned into mourning.

16The crown has been taken from our head: sorrow is ours, for we are sinners.

16The crown is fallen from our head: woe to us, because we have sinned.

17Because of this our hearts are feeble; for these things our eyes are dark;

17Therefore is our heart sorrowful, therefore are our eyes become dim.

18Because of the mountain of Zion which is a waste; jackals go over it.

18For mount Sion, because it is destroyed, foxes have walked upon it.

19You, O Lord, are seated as King for ever; the seat of your power is eternal.

19But thou, O Lord, shalt remain for ever, thy throne from generation to generation.

20Why have we gone from your memory for ever? why have you been turned away from us for so long?

20Why wilt thou forget us for ever? why wilt thou forsake us for a long time?

21Make us come back to you, O Lord, and let us be turned; make our days new again as in the past.

21Convert us, O Lord, to thee, and we shall be converted: renew our days, as from the beginning.

22But you have quite given us up; you are full of wrath against us.

22But thou hast utterly rejected us, thou art exceedingly angry with us.