Lamentations 5:4-22 ▼

4 Our water for silver we drink, and our wood comes in with a price.

5 Upon our necks we are pursued; we grow weary, and no rest is unto us.

6 To Egypt we have given our hand, to Assyria to be satisfied with bread.

7 Our fathers sinned, and are no more, and we bear their iniquities.

8 Servants rule over us; there is no one tearing us away from their hand.

9 With our soul we bring in our bread before the face of the sword in the wilderness.

10 Our skin like an oven grows hot from the face of the burning heat of famine.

11 The women in Zion they have pressed down, and the maidens in the cities of Judah.

12 Princes were hanged by their hands; and the faces of the elders were not honored.

13 Young men they have taken to grind, and boys stumble under the wood.

14 The old men have ceased from the gate; the young men from their music.

15 The joy of our heart has ceased, our dancing has turned to mourning;

16 the crown has fallen from our head—woe to us, for we have sinned!

17 Upon thus our heart has become faint; for these our eyes grow dim.

18 For Mount Zion, which is desolate; foxes have walked upon it.

19 You, O YHWH, remain forever—Your throne from generation to generation.

20 Why do You forget us forever? You forsake us for a length of days.

21 Return us, O YHWH, to You, and we will return! Renew our days as of old,

22 unless You have utterly rejected us, and remain angry with us even to exceedingly!