[1] 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 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 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 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?