Lamentations 5
World English Bible
5 Remember, Yahweh, what has come on us.
Look, and see our reproach.
2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
our houses to aliens.
3 We are orphans and fatherless.
Our mothers are as widows.
4 We have drunken our water for money.
Our wood is sold to us.
5 Our pursuers are on our necks.
We are weary, and have no rest.
6 We have given our hands to the Egyptians,
and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.
7 Our fathers sinned, and are no more.
We have borne their iniquities.
8 Servants rule over us.
There is no one to deliver us out of their hand.
9 We get our bread at the peril of our lives,
because of the sword of the wilderness.
10 Our skin is black like an oven,
because of the burning heat of famine.
11 They ravished the women in Zion,
the virgins in the cities of Judah.
12 Princes were hanged up by their hands.
The faces of elders were not honored.
13 The young men carry millstones.
The children stumbled under loads of wood.
14 The elders have ceased from the gate,
and the young men from their music.
15 The joy of our heart has ceased.
Our dance is turned into mourning.
16 The crown has fallen from our head.
Woe to us, for we have sinned!
17 For this our heart is faint.
For these things our eyes are dim:
18 for the mountain of Zion, which is desolate.
The foxes walk on it.
19 You, Yahweh, remain forever.
Your throne is from generation to generation.
20 Why do you forget us forever,
and forsake us for so long a time?
21 Turn us to yourself, Yahweh, and we will be turned.
Renew our days as of old.
22 But you have utterly rejected us.
You are very angry against us.
Lamentations 5
New Living Translation
Prayer for Restoration
5 Lord, remember what has happened to us.
See how we have been disgraced!
2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
our homes to foreigners.
3 We are orphaned and fatherless.
Our mothers are widowed.
4 We have to pay for water to drink,
and even firewood is expensive.
5 Those who pursue us are at our heels;
we are exhausted but are given no rest.
6 We submitted to Egypt and Assyria
to get enough food to survive.
7 Our ancestors sinned, but they have died—
and we are suffering the punishment they deserved!
8 Slaves have now become our masters;
there is no one left to rescue us.
9 We hunt for food at the risk of our lives,
for violence rules the countryside.
10 The famine has blackened our skin
as though baked in an oven.
11 Our enemies rape the women in Jerusalem[a]
and the young girls in all the towns of Judah.
12 Our princes are being hanged by their thumbs,
and our elders are treated with contempt.
13 Young men are led away to work at millstones,
and boys stagger under heavy loads of wood.
14 The elders no longer sit in the city gates;
the young men no longer dance and sing.
15 Joy has left our hearts;
our dancing has turned to mourning.
16 The garlands have[b] fallen from our heads.
Weep for us because we have sinned.
17 Our hearts are sick and weary,
and our eyes grow dim with tears.
18 For Jerusalem[c] is empty and desolate,
a place haunted by jackals.
19 But Lord, you remain the same forever!
Your throne continues from generation to generation.
20 Why do you continue to forget us?
Why have you abandoned us for so long?
21 Restore us, O Lord, and bring us back to you again!
Give us back the joys we once had!
22 Or have you utterly rejected us?
Are you angry with us still?
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Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
