| 1 | Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us; look, and see our disgrace! |
| 2 | Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to aliens. |
| 3 | We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are like widows. |
| 4 | We must pay for the water we drink; the wood we get must be bought. |
| 5 | With a yoke on our necks we are hard driven; we are weary, we are given no rest. |
| 6 | We have made a pact with Egypt and Assyria, to get enough bread. |
| 7 | Our ancestors sinned; they are no more, and we bear their iniquities. |
| 8 | Slaves rule over us; there is no one to deliver us from their hand. |
| 9 | We get our bread at the peril of our lives, because of the sword in the wilderness. |
| 10 | Our skin is black as an oven from the scorching heat of famine. |
| 11 | Women are raped in Zion, virgins in the towns of Judah. |
| 12 | Princes are hung up by their hands; no respect is shown to the elders. |
| 13 | Young men are compelled to grind, and boys stagger under loads of wood. |
| 14 | The old men have left the city gate, the young men their music. |
| 15 | The joy of our hearts has ceased; our dancing has been turned to mourning. |
| 16 | The crown has fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned! |
| 17 | Because of this our hearts are sick, because of these things our eyes have grown dim: |
| 18 | because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate; jackals prowl over it. |
| 19 | But you, O LORD, reign forever; your throne endures to all generations. |
| 20 | Why have you forgotten us completely? Why have you forsaken us these many days? |
| 21 | Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may be restored; renew our days as of old — |
| 22 | unless you have utterly rejected us, and are angry with us beyond measure. |