A Prayer for Restoration

1Remember, O YHWH, what has happened to us!

Look and see our disgrace!

2Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,

and our houses to foreigners.

3Fatherless we have become, and those with no father;

our mothers are now like widows.

4Our water for silver we drink,

and our wood comes in with a price.

5Upon our necks we are pursued;

we grow weary, and no rest is unto us.

6To Egypt we have given our hand,

to Assyria to be satisfied with bread.

7Our fathers sinned, and are no more,

and we bear their iniquities.

8Servants rule over us;

there is no one tearing us away from their hand.

9With our soul we bring in our bread

before the face of the sword in the wilderness.

10Our skin like an oven grows hot

from the face of the burning heat of famine.

11The women in Zion they have pressed down,

and the maidens in the cities of Judah.

12Princes were hanged by their hands;

and the faces of the elders were not honored.

13Young men they have taken to grind,

and boys stumble under the wood.

14The old men have ceased from the gate;

the young men from their music.

15The joy of our heart has ceased,

our dancing has turned to mourning;

16the crown has fallen from our head—

woe to us, for we have sinned!

17Upon thus our heart has become faint;

for these our eyes grow dim.

18For Mount Zion, which is desolate;

foxes have walked upon it.

19You, O YHWH, remain forever—

Your throne from generation to generation.

20Why do You forget us forever?

You forsake us for a length of days.

21Return us, O YHWH, to You, and we will return!

Renew our days as of old,

22unless You have utterly rejected us,

and remain angry with us even to exceedingly!