Prayer for Restoration
Look, and see our disgrace!
2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
our houses to foreigners.
3 We have become orphans, fatherless;
our mothers are widows.
4 We must pay for the water we drink;
our wood comes at a price.
5 We are closely pursued;
we are tired, and no one offers us rest.
6 We made a treaty with[a] Egypt
and with Assyria, to get enough food.
7 Our fathers sinned; they no longer exist,
but we bear their punishment.
8 Slaves rule over us;
no one rescues us from their hands.
9 We secure our food at the risk of our lives
because of the sword in the wilderness.
10 Our skin is as hot[b] as an oven
from the ravages of hunger.
11 Women are raped in Zion,
girls in the cities of Judah.
12 Princes are hung up by their hands;
elders are shown no respect.
13 Young men labor at millstones;
boys stumble under loads of wood.
14 The elders have left the city gate,
the young men, their music.
15 Joy has left our hearts;
our dancing has turned to mourning.
16 The crown has fallen from our head.
Woe to us, for we have sinned.
17 Because of this, our heart is sick;
because of these, our eyes grow dim:
18 because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate
and has jackals prowling in it.
19 You, Lord, are enthroned forever;
Your throne endures from generation to generation.
20 Why have You forgotten us forever,
abandoned us for our entire lives?
21 Lord, restore us to Yourself, so we may return;
renew our days as in former times,
22 unless You have completely rejected us
and are intensely angry with us.
Footnotes
- Lamentations 5:6 Lit We gave the hand to
- Lamentations 5:10 Or black; Hb obscure