Lamentations 5:1-15 ▼

1 Remember, LORD, what has happened to us, pay attention, and see our disgrace:

2 Our heritage is turned over to strangers, our homes, to foreigners.

3 We have become orphans, without fathers; our mothers are like widows.

4 We pay money to drink our own water, our own wood comes at a price.

5 With a yoke on our necks, we are driven; we are worn out, but allowed no rest.

6 We extended a hand to Egypt and Assyria, to satisfy our need of bread.

7 Our ancestors, who sinned, are no more; but now we bear their guilt.

8 Servants rule over us, with no one to tear us from their hands.

9 We risk our lives just to get bread, exposed to the desert heat;

10 Our skin heats up like an oven, from the searing blasts of famine.

11 Women are raped in Zion, young women in the cities of Judah;

12 Princes have been hanged by them, elders shown no respect.

13 Young men carry millstones, boys stagger under loads of wood;

14 The elders have abandoned the gate, the young men their music.

15 The joy of our hearts has ceased, dancing has turned into mourning;