1Remember, LORD, what has come on us. Look, and see our disgrace.

2Our inheritance is turned over to strangers, our houses to foreigners.

3We are orphans and fatherless. Our mothers are like widows.

4We have to pay for a drink of water; our wood is sold to us.

5Our pursuers are on our necks; we are weary, and have no rest.

6We have submitted to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians, to get enough bread.

7Our fathers sinned, and are no more; but we have borne their iniquities.

8Servants rule over us: There is none 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 hot like an oven, because of the burning heat of famine.

11They raped the women in Zion, the virgins in the cities of Judah.

12Princes were hung by their hands; elders were shown no respect.

13The young men grind at the mill; the boys stagger under loads of wood.

14The elders have gone from the gate, the young men from their music.

15The joy of our heart has ceased; our dancing is turned into mourning.

16The crown is fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned.

17For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes grow dim.

18For the mountain of Zion, which is desolate; the foxes walk on it.

19But you, LORD, abide forever; your throne is from generation to generation.

20Why do you keep on forgetting us? Why do you forsake us so long?

21Restore us to you, LORD, and we shall be restored; renew our days as in former times,

22unless you have completely rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure.