⁶ I am utterly bowed down and prostrate;
    all day long I go around mourning.^(A)

² For you are the God in whom I take refuge;
    why have you cast me off?
Why must I walk about mournfully
    because of the oppression of the enemy?^(A)

² The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer,
    my God, my rock in whom I take refuge,
    my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.^(A)

5 Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us;
    look, and see our disgrace!^(A)
2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
    our homes to aliens.^(B)
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^[a] on our necks we are hard driven;
    we are weary; we are given no rest.^(C)
6 We have made a pact with^[b] Egypt and Assyria
    to get enough bread.^(D)
7 Our ancestors sinned; they are no more,
    and we bear their iniquities.^(E)
8 Slaves rule over us;
    there is no one to deliver us from their hand.^(F)
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.^(G)
11 Women are raped in Zion,
    young women in the towns of Judah.^(H)
12 Princes are hung up by their hands;
    no respect is shown to the elders.^(I)
13 Young men are compelled to grind,
    and boys stagger under loads of wood.^(J)
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.^(K)
16 The crown has fallen from our head;
    woe to us, for we have sinned!

² He alone is my rock and my salvation,
    my fortress; I shall never be shaken.^(A)

¹ To you, O Lord, I call;
    my rock, do not refuse to hear me,
for if you are silent to me,
    I shall be like those who go down to the Pit.^(A)