Lamentations 5

¹Remember, Lord , what has happened to us,

pay attention, and see our disgrace:

²Our heritage is turned over to strangers,

our homes, to foreigners.

³We have become orphans, without fathers;

our mothers are like widows.

⁴We pay money to drink our own water,

our own wood comes at a price.

⁵With a yoke on our necks, we are driven;

we are worn out, but allowed no rest.

⁶We extended a hand to Egypt and Assyria,

to satisfy our need of bread.

⁷Our ancestors, who sinned, are no more;

but now we bear their guilt.

⁸Servants rule over us,[#: the Hebrew word for “servant” is also the word used for an official of relatively high status (servant of the ruler; cf. 2 Kgs 25:24, where the term is used to refer to Babylonian rulers over occupied Jerusalem); the author doubtless intends the double meaning here.]

with no one to tear us from their hands.

⁹We risk our lives just to get bread,

exposed to the desert heat;

¹⁰Our skin heats up like an oven,

from the searing blasts of famine.

¹¹Women are raped in Zion,

young women in the cities of Judah;

¹²Princes have been hanged by them,

elders shown no respect.

¹³Young men carry millstones,

boys stagger under loads of wood;

¹⁴The elders have abandoned the gate,[#: a place of assembly, where city decisions were made and judgment given by the elders and other community leaders; see note on Ru 4:1.]

the young men their music.

¹⁵The joy of our hearts has ceased,

dancing has turned into mourning;

¹⁶The crown has fallen from our head:

woe to us that we sinned!

¹⁷Because of this our hearts grow sick,

at this our eyes grow dim:

¹⁸Because of Mount Zion, lying desolate,

and the jackals roaming there!

¹⁹But you, Lord , are enthroned forever;

your throne stands from age to age.

²⁰Why have you utterly forgotten us,[#Unlike most of the laments found in the Book of Psalms, the Book of Lamentations never moves from lament to thanksgiving. It ends with this question still unanswered by God: “Why have you utterly forgotten us?”]

forsaken us for so long?

²¹Bring us back to you, Lord , that we may return:

renew our days as of old.

²²For now you have indeed rejected us

and utterly turned your wrath against us.