A Prayer for Mercy

1Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us;
         Look, and see our reproach!

2Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
         Our houses to aliens.

3We have become orphans without a father,
         Our mothers are like widows.

4We have to pay for our drinking water,
         Our wood comes to us at a price.

5Our pursuers are at our necks;
         We are worn out, there is no rest for us.

6We have submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get enough bread.

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

8Slaves rule over us;
         There is no one to deliver us from their hand.

9We get our bread at the risk of our lives
         Because of the sword in the wilderness.

10Our skin has become as hot as an oven,
         Because of the burning heat of famine.

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

12Princes were hung by their hands;
         Elders were not respected.

13Young men worked at the grinding mill,
         And youths stumbled under loads of wood.

14Elders are gone from the gate,
         Young men from their music.

15The joy of our hearts has ceased;
         Our dancing has been turned into mourning.

16The crown has fallen from our head;
         Woe to us, for we have sinned!

17Because of this our heart is faint,
         Because of these things our eyes are dim;

18Because of Mount Zion which lies desolate,
         Foxes prowl in it.

19You, O LORD, rule forever;
         Your throne is from generation to generation.

20Why do You forget us forever?
         Why do You forsake us so long?

21Restore us to You, O LORD, that we may be restored;
         Renew our days as of old,

22Unless You have utterly rejected us
         And are exceedingly angry with us.

NASB ©1995

American Standard Version
Remember, O Jehovah, what is come upon us: Behold, and see our reproach.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us: consider and behold our reproach.

Darby Bible Translation
Remember, O Jehovah, what is come upon us; consider, and see our reproach.

English Revised Version
Remember, O what is LORD, come upon us: behold, and see our reproach.

Webster's Bible Translation
Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.

World English Bible
Remember, Yahweh, what has come on us: Look, and see our reproach.

Young's Literal Translation
Remember, O Jehovah, what hath befallen us, Look attentively, and see our reproach.Whether an Angel Needs Grace in Order to Turn to God?
Objection 1: It would seem that the angel had no need of grace in order to turn to God. For, we have no need of grace for what we can accomplish naturally. But the angel naturally turns to God: because he loves God naturally, as is clear from what has been said ([543]Q[60], A[5]). Therefore an angel did not need grace in order to turn to God. Objection 2: Further, seemingly we need help only for difficult tasks. Now it was not a difficult task for the angel to turn to God; because there was no obstacle …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Man's Inability to Keep the Moral Law
Is any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God? No mere man, since the fall, is able in this life perfectly to keep the commandments of God, but does daily break them, in thought, word, and deed. In many things we offend all.' James 3: 2. Man in his primitive state of innocence, was endowed with ability to keep the whole moral law. He had rectitude of mind, sanctity of will, and perfection of power. He had the copy of God's law written on his heart; no sooner did God command but he obeyed. …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

Lamentations
The book familiarly known as the Lamentations consists of four elegies[1] (i., ii., iii., iv.) and a prayer (v.). The general theme of the elegies is the sorrow and desolation created by the destruction of Jerusalem[2] in 586 B.C.: the last poem (v.) is a prayer for deliverance from the long continued distress. The elegies are all alphabetic, and like most alphabetic poems (cf. Ps. cxix.) are marked by little continuity of thought. The first poem is a lament over Jerusalem, bereft, by the siege, …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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