Lamentations, 5
1. Yahweh, remember what has happened to us; consider, and see our degradation.
1. Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us; behold, and see our disgrace!
2. Our heritage has passed to strangers, our homes to foreigners.
2. Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to aliens.
3. We are orphans, we are fatherless; our mothers are like widows.
3. We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are like widows.
4. We have to buy our own water to drink, our own wood we can get only at a price.
4. We must pay for the water we drink, the wood we get must be bought.
5. The yoke is on our necks; we are persecuted; exhausted we are, allowed no rest.
5. With a yoke on our necks we are hard driven; we are weary, we are given no rest.
6. We made a pact with Egypt, with Assyria, to have plenty of food.
6. We have given the hand to Egypt, and to Assyria, to get bread enough.
7. Our ancestors sinned; they are no more, and we bear the weight of their guilt.
7. Our fathers sinned, and are no more; and we bear their iniquities.
8. Slaves rule us; there is no one to rescue us from their clutches.
8. Slaves rule over us; there is none to deliver us from their hand.
9. At peril of our lives we earn our bread, by risking the sword of the desert.
9. We get our bread at the peril of our lives, because of the sword in the wilderness.
10. Our skin is as hot as an oven, from the scorch of famine.
10. Our skin is hot as an oven with the burning heat of famine.
11. The women in Zion have been raped, the young girls in the towns of Judah.
11. Women are ravished in Zion, virgins in the towns of Judah.
12. Princes have been hanged by their hands; the face of the old has won no respect.
12. Princes are hung up by their hands; no respect is shown to the elders.
13. Youths have been put to the mill, boys stagger under loads of wood.
13. Young men are compelled to grind at the mill; and boys stagger under loads of wood.
14. The elders have deserted the gateway; the young have given up their music.
14. The old men have quit the city gate, the young men their music.
15. Joy has vanished from our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning.
15. The joy of our hearts has ceased; our dancing has been turned to mourning.
16. The crown has fallen from our heads. Alas that ever we sinned!
16. The crown has fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned!
17. This is why our hearts are sick; this is why our eyes are dim:
17. For this our heart has become sick, for these things our eyes have grown dim,
18. because Mount Zion is desolate; jackals roam to and fro on it.
18. for Mount Zion which lies desolate; jackals prowl over it.
19. Yet you, Yahweh, rule from eternity; your throne endures from age to age.
19. But thou, O LORD, dost reign for ever; thy throne endures to all generations.
20. Why do you never remember us? Why do you abandon us so long?
20. Why dost thou forget us for ever, why dost thou so long forsake us?
21. Make us come back to you, Yahweh, and we will come back. Restore us as we were before!
21. Restore us to thyself, O LORD, that we may be restored! Renew our days as of old!
22. Unless you have utterly rejected us, in an anger which knows no limit.
22. Or hast thou utterly rejected us? Art thou exceedingly angry with us?
