Lamentations 5

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

Lord, please remember our struggles. Look upon us and see our shame.

Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.

Our legacy has been handed to outsiders, our homes now belong to the unfamiliar.

We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.

We are like children lost, without a father's guidance, our mothers bear the loneliness of widowhood.

We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.

We've paid for the water we drink; even the wood we use is bought from others.

Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest.

We are relentlessly oppressed, tirelessly working without a moment's peace.

We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.

We've surrendered ourselves to the Egyptians and Assyrians, just for a piece of bread.

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

Our ancestors sinned and are no longer here; we carry the weight of their wrongdoings.

Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand.

We've been dominated by those who should serve us, yet no one comes to free us from their grip.

We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness.

We risk our lives for daily bread, fearing the unseen dangers of the wilderness.

Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.

Our skin darkened, scorched by the relentless famine.

They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.

The women of Zion and the young girls of Judah were brutally violated.

Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured.

Royalty is left to dangle, their dignity stripped away; the wisdom of the aged is disrespected and ignored.

They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.

They forced the youths into hard labor, and the innocent children collapsed under the weight of the timber.

The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick.

The wise ones no longer gather at the city's entrance, the young ones have silenced their joyful tunes.

The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.

Our hearts no longer know happiness; our celebration has been replaced with sorrow.

The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!

Our crown has fallen; woe to us, for we have sinned!

For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.

Our hearts are heavy with sorrow; our eyes clouded by tears.

Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.

The once vibrant Mount Zion now lies barren, a playground for wandering foxes.

Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.

You, Lord, are eternal; your reign spans across all generations.

Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?

Why do you seem to forget us forever, leaving us alone for so long?

Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.

Guide us back to you, O LORD, and we will follow; refresh our lives like in the past.

But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.

You've completely turned away from us; you're extremely angry with us.