A Prayer for Deliverance

1LORD, remember what has happened to us.

Pay attention, and look at our shame!

2Our inheritance hasa been turned over to strangers,

and our homes to foreigners.

3We are now orphans—without fathers—

and our mothers are like widows.

4We pay to drink our own water,

and our own wood is sold to us at high price.

5Our pursuers breathe downb our necks;

we are weary, but there is no rest for us.

6We made a deal with the Egyptians and the Assyrians

for the price of food.c

7Our ancestors sinned and no longer exist

yet we continue to bear the consequences of their sin.

8Slaves rule over us,

and no one delivers us from their control.d

9We risk our lives to obtain our food,

facing deathe in the desert.

10Our skin blistersf as from an oven,

due to ravaging blasts of the famine.

11They have raped women in Zion,

young womeng in the towns of Judah.

12Princes they have hung by their hands;

eldersh they have disrespected.

13Ouri young men must grind grain with a millstone;

ourj youths stumble under the weight of wood.

14Ourk elders have ceased rulingl at the gate;

ourm young men have abandonedn their music.

15The joy of our hearts has ceased,

and our dancing has turned into dirges.

16The crown has fallen from our head—

woe to us, because we have sinned!

17This is why our hearts faint,

and why our eyes grow dim:

18Because Mount Zion is desolate;

foxes roam around it.

19You, LORD, are forever—

your throne endures from generation to generation.

20So why have you completely forgotten us,

forsaking us for so long?

21Restore us to yourself, LORD,

so that we may return.

Renew our days as before,

22unless you have utterly rejected us

and are angry with us without limit.