1 Keep in mind, O Jehovah, what has come to us. Take note and see our shame.
2 Our heritage is turned over to men of strange lands, our houses to those who are not our countrymen.
3 We are children without fathers. Our mothers are like widows.
4 We give money for a drink of water. We get our wood for a price.
5 Our attackers are on our necks. We are overcome with weariness and we have no rest.
6 We have given our hands to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians so that we might have enough bread.
7 Our fathers were sinners and are dead. The weight of their evil deeds is on us.
8 Servants rule over us, and there is no one to free us from their hands.
9 We risk our lives to get food, because of the sword of the wasteland.
10 Our skin is heated like an oven because of our burning heat from the need of food.
11 They took by force the women in Zion, the virgins in the towns of Judah.
12 They put princes to death by hanging. The elders are not honored.
13 The young men crushed the grain, and the boys fell under the wood.
14 The old men are no longer seated in the doorway. The music of the young men has come to an end.
15 The joy of our hearts has ended; our dancing is changed into sorrow.
16 The crown has been taken from our head. Sorrow is ours, for we are sinners.
17 Because of this our hearts are feeble. For these things our eyes are dark.
18 The mountain of Zion is a waste. So jackals go there.
19 You, O Jehovah, are seated as King forever. The seat of your power is eternal.
20 Why have we gone from your memory forever? Why have you turned away from us for so long?
21 Make us come back to you, O Jehovah, and let us be restored. Make our days new again as in the past.
22 But you have rejected us. You are full of wrath against us!