Lamentations 5:1-22

  • People’s prayer for restoration

    • ‘Remember what has befallen us’ (1)

    • ‘Woe to us; we have sinned’ (16)

    • ‘Bring us back, O Jehovah’ (21)

    • “Renew our days” (21)

5  Remember, O Jehovah, what has befallen us. Look and see our disgrace.+  2  Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to foreigners.+  3  We have become orphans without a father; our mothers are like widows.+  4  We must pay to drink our own water,+ and our own wood comes at a price.  5  Those pursuing us are at our neck;We are weary, but we are given no rest.+  6  We hold out our hand to Egypt+ and to As·syrʹi·a,+ to get enough bread to eat.  7  Our forefathers who sinned are no more, but we must bear their errors.  8  Servants now rule over us; there is no one to snatch us from their hand.  9  We bring in our bread at the risk of our life,*+ because of the sword of the wilderness. 10  Our skin has become as hot as a furnace, because of the pangs of hunger.+ 11  The wives in Zion they have humiliated,* the virgins in the cities of Judah.+ 12  Princes were hanged by their hand,+ and elders were shown no respect.+ 13  Young men carry the hand mill, and boys stumble under loads of wood. 14  The elders are gone from the city gate;+ young men do not play their music.+ 15  The joy is gone from our heart; our dancing has turned into mourning.+ 16  The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, because we have sinned! 17  Because of this our heart is sick,+And because of these things our eyes have grown dim,+ 18  Because of Mount Zion, which is desolate;+ foxes now roam on it. 19  As for you, O Jehovah, you sit enthroned forever. Your throne is for generation after generation.+ 20  Why do you forget us forever and abandon us for so long a time?+ 21  Bring us back to yourself, O Jehovah, and we will readily return to you.+ Renew our days as in those of old.+ 22  However, you have utterly rejected us. You remain intensely angry with us.+

Footnotes

Or “soul.”
Or “raped.”