¹Remember , LORD , what has come on us .

Look , and see our reproach .

²Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers ,

our houses to aliens .

³We are orphans and fatherless .

Our mothers are as widows.

⁴We must pay for water to drink .

Our wood is sold to us.

⁵Our pursuers are on our necks .

We are weary , and have no rest .

⁶We have given our hands to the Egyptians ,

and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread .

⁷Our fathers sinned , and are no more.

We have borne their iniquities .

⁸Servants rule over us .

There is no one to deliver us out of their hand .

⁹We get our bread at the peril of our lives ,

because of the sword in the wilderness .

¹⁰Our skin is black like an oven ,

because of the burning heat of famine .

¹¹They ravished the women in Zion ,

the virgins in the cities of Judah .

¹²Princes were hanged up by their hands .

The faces of elders were not honoured .

¹³The young men carry millstones.

The children stumbled under loads of wood .

¹⁴The elders have ceased from the gate ,

and the young men from their music .

¹⁵The joy of our heart has ceased .

Our dance is turned into mourning.

¹⁶The crown has fallen from our head .

Woe to us , for we have sinned !

¹⁷For this our heart is faint .

For these things our eyes are dim :

¹⁸for the mountain of Zion , which is desolate .

The foxes walk on it .

¹⁹You , LORD , remain forever .

Your throne is from generation to generation .

²⁰Why do you forget us forever ,

and forsake us for so long a time ?

²¹Turn us to yourself, LORD , and we will be turned .

Renew our days as of old .

²²But you have utterly rejected us .

You are very angry against us .