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?
Lamentations 5
International Standard Version
A Prayer for Deliverance
5 Lord, remember what has happened to us.
Pay attention, and look at our shame!
2 Our inheritance has[a] been turned over to strangers,
and our homes to foreigners.
3 We are now orphans—without fathers—
and our mothers are like widows.
4 We pay to drink our own water,
and our own wood is sold to us at high price.
5 Our pursuers breathe down[b] our necks;
we are weary, but there is no rest for us.
6 We made a deal with the Egyptians and the Assyrians
for the price of food.[c]
7 Our ancestors sinned and no longer exist
yet we continue to bear the consequences of their sin.
8 Slaves rule over us,
and no one delivers us from their control.[d]
9 We risk our lives to obtain our food,
facing death[e] in the desert.
10 Our skin blisters[f] as from an oven,
due to ravaging blasts of the famine.
11 They have raped women in Zion,
young women[g] in the towns of Judah.
12 Princes they have hung by their hands;
elders[h] they have disrespected.
13 Our[i] young men must grind grain with a millstone;
our[j] youths stumble under the weight of wood.
15 The joy of our hearts has ceased,
and our dancing has turned into dirges.
16 The crown has fallen from our head—
woe to us, because we have sinned!
17 This is why our hearts faint,
and why our eyes grow dim:
18 Because Mount Zion is desolate;
foxes roam around it.
19 You, Lord, are forever—
your throne endures from generation to generation.
20 So why have you completely forgotten us,
forsaking us for so long?
21 Restore us to yourself, Lord,
so that we may return.
Renew our days as before,
22 unless you have utterly rejected us
and are angry with us without limit.
Footnotes
- Lamentations 5:2 Or possessions have
- Lamentations 5:5 Lit. pursuers are on
- Lamentations 5:6 Lit. Assyrians, being satisfied with bread
- Lamentations 5:8 Lit. hand
- Lamentations 5:9 Lit. facing the sword
- Lamentations 5:10 Lit. blackens
- Lamentations 5:11 Lit. the virgins
- Lamentations 5:12 Lit. the faces of the elders
- Lamentations 5:13 The Heb. lacks Our
- Lamentations 5:13 The Heb. lacks our
- Lamentations 5:14 The Heb. lacks Our
- Lamentations 5:14 The Heb. lacks ruling
- Lamentations 5:14 The Heb. lacks our
- Lamentations 5:14 The Heb. lacks have abandoned
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.
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