Lamentations 5
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 5
The Prophet’s Plea for Mercy
1 Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us
look, and see our disgrace.
2 Our inherited lands have been given to strangers,
our homes to foreigners.
3 We have become orphans and fatherless;
our mothers are like widows.
4 We must purchase the water we drink;
we must pay for our own wood.
5 On our necks is the yoke of those who persecute us;
although we are exhausted, we are afforded no rest.
6 We have submitted to Egypt and Assyria
to get enough bread to sustain us.
7 Our ancestors who sinned are no longer alive,
but we bear the burden of their guilt.
8 Slaves have become our rulers;
there is no one to deliver us from their hands.
9 We earn our bread at the peril of our lives
because of the sword in the wilderness.[a]
10 Our skin is blackened as in a furnace
from the scorching heat of famine.
11 Women have been raped in Zion
and virgins in the towns of Judah.
12 Princes have been hung up by their hands;
elders are shown no respect.
13 Young men toil, carrying the millstones;
boys stagger under their loads of wood.
14 The old men no longer assemble at the city gate;[b]
the young men have given up their music.
15 Joy has vanished from our hearts;
our dancing has turned to mourning.
16 The garlands have fallen from our heads;
woe to us, for we have sinned.
17 This is why we are sick at heart;
because of this our eyes have grown dim.
18 Mount Zion lies desolate,
overrun with jackals.
19 But you, O Lord, reign forever;
your throne endures from age to age.
20 Why have you ceased to remember us?
Why have you abandoned us for so long a time?
21 Restore us back to you, O Lord, and we will return.[c]
Renew our days as we had of old,
22 unless you have utterly rejected us
with an anger that is beyond measure.
Footnotes
- Lamentations 5:9 Sword in the wilderness: they could get bread only by exposing themselves to the dangers of the wilderness.
- Lamentations 5:14 Gate: public life and political activity were carried on at the gates of the city.
- Lamentations 5:21 The first part of this verse is more familiar to us in the Vulgate translation: “Convert us, O Lord, and we shall be converted!”
Lamentations 5
21st Century King James Version
5 Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us; consider, and behold our reproach.
2 Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.
3 We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.
4 We have paid money for water we drink; our wood is sold unto us.
5 Our necks are under persecution; we labor and have no rest.
6 We have given the hand to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians to be provided with bread.
7 Our fathers have sinned, and are no more; and we have borne their iniquities.
8 Servants have ruled over us; there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand.
9 We got our bread with the peril of our lives, because of the sword of the wilderness.
10 Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.
11 They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.
12 Princes are hanged up by their hand; the faces of elders were not honored.
13 They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.
14 The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their music.
15 The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.
16 The crown is fallen from our head. Woe unto us that we have sinned!
17 For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.
18 Because of the mountain of Zion which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.
19 Thou, O Lord, remainest for ever, Thy throne from generation to generation.
20 Why dost Thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long a time?
21 Turn Thou us unto Thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned! Renew our days as of old!—
22 But Thou hast utterly rejected us; Thou art very wroth against us.
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