NET Bible | New Living Translation |
1O LORD, reflect on what has happened to us; consider and look at our disgrace. | 1LORD, remember what has happened to us. See how we have been disgraced! |
2Our inheritance is turned over to strangers; foreigners now occupy our homes. | 2Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners. |
3We have become fatherless orphans; our mothers have become widows. | 3We are orphaned and fatherless. Our mothers are widowed. |
4We must pay money for our own water; we must buy our own wood at a steep price. | 4We have to pay for water to drink, and even firewood is expensive. |
5We are pursued--they are breathing down our necks; we are weary and have no rest. | 5Those who pursue us are at our heels; we are exhausted but are given no rest. |
6We have submitted to Egypt and Assyria in order to buy food to eat. | 6We submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get enough food to survive. |
7Our forefathers sinned and are dead, but we suffer their punishment. | 7Our ancestors sinned, but they have died— and we are suffering the punishment they deserved! |
8Slaves rule over us; there is no one to rescue us from their power. | 8Slaves have now become our masters; there is no one left to rescue us. |
9At the risk of our lives we get our food because robbers lurk in the countryside. | 9We hunt for food at the risk of our lives, for violence rules the countryside. |
10Our skin is hot as an oven due to a fever from hunger. | 10The famine has blackened our skin as though baked in an oven. |
11They raped women in Zion, virgins in the towns of Judah. | 11Our enemies rape the women in Jerusalem and the young girls in all the towns of Judah. |
12Princes were hung by their hands; elders were mistreated. | 12Our princes are being hanged by their thumbs, and our elders are treated with contempt. |
13The young men perform menial labor; boys stagger from their labor. | 13Young men are led away to work at millstones, and boys stagger under heavy loads of wood. |
14The elders are gone from the city gate; the young men have stopped playing their music. | 14The elders no longer sit in the city gates; the young men no longer dance and sing. |
15Our hearts no longer have any joy; our dancing is turned to mourning. | 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! | 16The garlands have fallen from our heads. Weep for us because we have sinned. |
17Because of this, our hearts are sick; because of these things, we can hardly see through our tears. | 17Our hearts are sick and weary, and our eyes grow dim with tears. |
18For wild animals are prowling over Mount Zion, which lies desolate. | 18For Jerusalem is empty and desolate, a place haunted by jackals. |
19But you, O LORD, reign forever; your throne endures from generation to generation. | 19But LORD, you remain the same forever! Your throne continues from generation to generation. |
20Why do you keep on forgetting us? Why do you forsake us so long? | 20Why do you continue to forget us? Why have you abandoned us for so long? |
21Bring us back to yourself, O LORD, so that we may return to you; renew our life as in days before, | 21Restore us, O LORD, and bring us back to you again! Give us back the joys we once had! |
22unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure. | 22Or have you utterly rejected us? Are you angry with us still? |
|
![Lamentations 4](/left.png) ![Ezekiel 1](/right.png) ![Top of Page](/botleft.png) ![Top of Page](/botright.png) |