5:1 Remember, O LORD, what has happened to us; look, and see our disgrace.

5:2 Our inheritance has been turned over to aliens, our homes to foreigners.

5:3 We have become orphans and fatherless, our mothers like widows.

5:4 We must buy the water we drink; our wood can be had only at a price.

5:5 Those who pursue us are at our heels; we are weary and find no rest.

5:6 We submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get enough bread.

5:7 Our fathers sinned and are no more, and we bear their punishment.

5:8 Slaves rule over us, and there is none to free us from their hands.

5:9 We get our bread at the risk of our lives because of the sword in the desert.

5:10 Our skin is hot as an oven, feverish from hunger.

5:11 Women have been ravished in Zion, and virgins in the towns of Judah.

5:12 Princes have been hung up by their hands; elders are shown no respect.

5:13 Young men toil at the millstones; boys stagger under loads of wood.

5:14 The elders are gone from the city gate; the young men have stopped their music.

5:15 Joy is gone from our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning.

5:16 The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned!

5:17 Because of this our hearts are faint, because of these things our eyes grow dim

5:18 for Mount Zion, which lies desolate, with jackals prowling over it.

5:19 You, O LORD, reign forever; your throne endures from generation to generation.

5:20 Why do you always forget us? Why do you forsake us so long?

5:21 Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may return; renew our days as of old

5:22 unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure.