Lamentations 5:1-15 ▼

1 O LORD, reflect on what has happened to us; consider and look at our disgrace.

2 Our inheritance is turned over to strangers; foreigners now occupy our homes.

3 We have become fatherless orphans; our mothers have become widows.

4 We must pay money for our own water; we must buy our own wood at a steep price.

5 We are pursued--they are breathing down our necks; we are weary and have no rest.

6 We have submitted to Egypt and Assyria in order to buy food to eat.

7 Our forefathers sinned and are dead, but we suffer their punishment.

8 Slaves rule over us; there is no one to rescue us from their power.

9 At the risk of our lives we get our food because robbers lurk in the countryside.

10 Our skin is hot as an oven due to a fever from hunger.

11 They raped women in Zion, virgins in the towns of Judah.

12 Princes were hung by their hands; elders were mistreated.

13 The young men perform menial labor; boys stagger from their labor.

14 The elders are gone from the city gate; the young men have stopped playing their music.

15 Our hearts no longer have any joy; our dancing is turned to mourning.