Lamentations 5 — NETB

5Verse 1O Lord, reflect on what has happened to us;
consider and look at our disgrace.
^{Verse 2}Our inheritance is turned over to strangers;
foreigners now occupy our homes.
^{Verse 3}We have become fatherless orphans;
our mothers have become widows.
^{Verse 4}We must pay money for our own water;
we must buy our own wood at a steep price.
^{Verse 5}We are pursued – they are breathing down our necks;
we are weary and have no rest.
^{Verse 6}We have submitted to Egypt and Assyria
in order to buy food to eat.
^{Verse 7}Our forefathers sinned and are dead,
but we suffer their punishment.
^{Verse 8}Slaves rule over us;
there is no one to rescue us from their power.
^{Verse 9}At the risk of our lives we get our food
because robbers lurk in the countryside.
^{Verse 10}Our skin is hot as an oven
due to a fever from hunger.
^{Verse 11}They raped women in Zion,
virgins in the towns of Judah.
^{Verse 12}Princes were hung by their hands;
elders were mistreated.
^{Verse 13}The young men perform menial labor;
boys stagger from their labor.
^{Verse 14}The elders are gone from the city gate;
the young men have stopped playing their music.
^{Verse 15}Our hearts no longer have any joy;
our dancing is turned to mourning.
^{Verse 16}The crown has fallen from our head;
woe to us, for we have sinned!
^{Verse 17}Because of this, our hearts are sick;
because of these things, we can hardly see through our tears.
^{Verse 18}For wild animals are prowling over Mount Zion,
which lies desolate.
^{Verse 19}But you, O Lord, reign forever;
your throne endures from generation to generation.
^{Verse 20}Why do you keep on forgetting us?
Why do you forsake us so long?
^{Verse 21}Bring us back to yourself, O Lord, so that we may return to you;
renew our life as in days before,
^{Verse 22}unless you have utterly rejected usand are angry with us beyond measure.