Lamentations 5:1-22

YAHWEH, remember all that we’ve endured; look and see our disgrace. Our inheritance has passed to strangers, our homes to foreigners. We have no fathers; we are orphans, and our mothers are widows. We have to pay for drinking water, and our firewood comes at a steep price. Our pursuers are breathing down our necks; we are exhausted and allowed no rest. We made a pact with Egypt and Assyria just to have enough food to eat. Our ancestors sinned, and they are no more; and now we suffer their punishment. Slaves rule over us; there is no one to rescue us from them. We risk our lives to earn our bread because of armed gangs in the wilderness. Our skin is scorched from the heat of famine. Our enemies violated Zion’s women and young girls in the towns of Judah. Our leaders have been taken and hanged; our elders have received no respect. Young men are forced into menial labor, boys stagger under loads of wood. The elders no longer give their advice; the young no longer make music. Joy has vanished from our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning. Our joyful celebrations are over. We have sinned, and we are doomed! For this is why our hearts are sick and our eyes are veiled with tears, because Mount Zion lies desolate with jackals roaming over it. Yet you, YAHWEH, reign forever! Your throne endures from age to age. Have you forgotten us forever? Why have you abandoned us for so long? Draw us back to yourself, YAHWEH; let us come back to you! Restore us as we were before. Have you utterly rejected us? Is there no limit to your anger?