A Prayer for Mercy and Restoration

1Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us: consider and behold our reproach.

2Our inheritance is turned to aliens: our houses to strangers.

3We are become orphans without a father: our mothers are as widows.

4We have drunk our water for money: we have bought our wood.

5We were dragged by the necks, we were weary and no rest was given us.

6We have given our hand to Egypt, and to the Assyrians, that we might be satisfied with bread.

7Our fathers have sinned, and are not: and we have borne their iniquities.

8Servants have ruled over us: there was none to redeem us out of their hand.

9We fetched our bread at the peril of our lives, because of the sword in the desert.

10Our skin was burnt as an oven, by reason of the violence of the famine.

11They oppressed the women in Sion, and the virgins in the cities of Juda.

12The princes were hanged up by their hand: they did not respect the persons of the ancients.

13They abused the young men indecently: and the children fell under the wood.

14The ancients have ceased from the gates: the young men from the choir of the singers.

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

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

17Therefore is our heart sorrowful, therefore are our eyes become dim.

18For mount Sion, because it is destroyed, foxes have walked upon it.

19But thou, O Lord, shalt remain for ever, thy throne from generation to generation.

20Why wilt thou forget us for ever? why wilt thou forsake us for a long time?

21Convert us, O Lord, to thee, and we shall be converted: renew our days, as from the beginning.

22But thou hast utterly rejected us, thou art exceedingly angry with us.