5 Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us;
    look, and see our disgrace!
² Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
    our homes to foreigners.
³ We have become orphans, fatherless;
    our mothers are like widows.
⁴ We must pay for the water we drink;
    the wood we get must be bought.
⁵ Our pursuers are at our necks;
    we are weary; we are given no rest.
⁶ We have given the hand to Egypt, and to Assyria,
    to get bread enough.
⁷ Our fathers sinned, and are no more;
    and we bear their iniquities.
⁸ Slaves rule over us;
    there is none to deliver us from their hand.
⁹ We get our bread at the peril of our lives,
    because of the sword in the wilderness.
¹⁰ Our skin is hot as an oven
    with the burning heat of famine.
¹¹ Women are raped in Zion,
    young women in the towns of Judah.
¹² Princes are hung up by their hands;
    no respect is shown to the elders.
¹³ Young men are compelled to grind at the mill,
    and boys stagger under loads of wood.
¹⁴ The old men have left the city gate,
    the young men their music.
¹⁵ The joy of our hearts has ceased;
    our dancing has been turned to mourning.
¹⁶ The crown has fallen from our head;
    woe to us, for we have sinned!
¹⁷ For this our heart has become sick,
    for these things our eyes have grown dim,
¹⁸ for Mount Zion which lies desolate;
    jackals prowl over it.
¹⁹ But you, O Lord, reign forever;
    your throne endures to all generations.
²⁰ Why do you forget us forever,
    why do you forsake us for so many days?
²¹ Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored!
    Renew our days as of old—
²² unless you have utterly rejected us,
    and you remain exceedingly angry with us.