Lamentations 5

Restore Us to Yourself, O Lord

1 *Ps. 89:50Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us;

look, and see *ch. 3:61our disgrace!

2 *Ps. 79:1Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,

our homes to foreigners.

3 We have become orphans, fatherless;

our mothers are like widows.

4 We must pay for the water we drink;

the wood we get must be bought.

5 *[Josh. 10:24]Our pursuers are at our necks;

we are weary; we are given no rest.

6 We have given the hand to *[Hos. 12:1]Egypt, and to *[Hos. 12:1]Assyria,

to get bread enough.

7 Our fathers sinned, and are no more;

*Jer. 31:29;Ezek. 18:2and we bear their iniquities.

8 *[Prov. 30:21,22]Slaves rule over us;

there is none to deliver us from their hand.

9 *[Jer. 6:25]We get our bread at the peril of our lives,

because of the sword in the wilderness.

10 *See ch. 4:8Our skin is hot as an oven

with *[Deut. 32:24]the burning heat of famine.

11 Women are raped in Zion,

young women in the towns of Judah.

12 *See 2 Kgs. 25:19-21Princes are hung up by their hands;

*ch. 4:16no respect is shown to the elders.

13 Young men are compelled to *[Judg. 16:21] grind at the mill,

and boys stagger *[Josh. 9:27]under loads of wood.

14 *[See ver. 12above] The old men have left the city gate,

the young men *[Isa. 24:8]their music.

15 *[See ver. 14above] The joy of our hearts has ceased;

*[Amos 8:10]our dancing has been turned to mourning.

16 *Ps. 89:39;Jer. 13:18;[ch. 1:1]The crown has fallen from our head;

woe to us, for we have sinned!

17 For this *Isa. 1:5our heart has become sick,

for these things *See ch. 2:11our eyes have grown dim,

18 for Mount Zion which lies desolate;

*[Isa. 34:13]jackals prowl over it.

19 *Ps. 9:7;102:12;145:13But you, O Lord, reign forever;

your throne endures to all generations.

20 *Ps. 13:1Why do you forget us forever,

why do you forsake us for so many days?

21 *Jer. 31:18;[Ps. 80:3,7,19]Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored!

Renew our days as of old—

22 *Jer. 14:19unless you have utterly rejected us,

and you remain exceedingly angry with us.