A Prayer for Restoration

1Remember, O LORD, what has happened to us.

Look and see our disgrace!

2Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,

our houses to foreigners.

3We have become fatherless orphans;

our mothers are widows.

4We must buy the water we drink;

our wood comes at a price.

5We are closely pursued;

we are weary and find no rest.

6We submitted to Egypt and Assyria

to get enough bread.

7Our fathers sinned and are no more,

but we bear their punishment.

8Slaves rule over us;

there is no one to deliver us from their hands.

9We get our bread at the risk of our lives

because of the sword in the wilderness.

10Our skin is as hot as an oven

with fever from our hunger.

11Women have been ravished in Zion,

virgins in the cities of Judah.

12Princes have been hung up by their hands;

elders receive no respect.

13Young men toil at millstones;

boys stagger under loads of wood.

14The elders have left the city gate;

the young men have stopped their music.

15Joy has left our hearts;

our dancing has turned to mourning.

16The crown has fallen from our head.

Woe to us, for we have sinned!

17Because of this, our hearts are faint;

because of these, our eyes grow dim—

18because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate,

patrolled by foxes.

19You, O LORD, reign forever;

Your throne endures from generation to generation.

20Why have You forgotten us forever?

Why have You forsaken us for so long?

21Restore us to Yourself, O LORD, so we may return;

renew our days as of old,

22unless You have utterly rejected us

and remain angry with us beyond measure.