Lamentations

Our inheritance has been turned to aliens, our houses to foreigners.

We are orphans. [There is] no father; our mothers [are] like widows.

We have drunk our water for silver; our wood comes for a price.

We [are] pursued; we grow weary; rest is not given to us.

We have given the hand [to] the Egyptians, to the Assyrian, in order to be satisfied with bread.

Our fathers have sinned, and [we are] not; we have borne their iniquities.

Slaves rule over us; [there is] no rescuer from their hand.

We bring in our bread with our souls, from the face of the sword of the wilderness.

Our skin [is] burned black like an oven, because of the fever heat of famine.

They raped the women in Zion, virgins in the cities of Judah.

Rulers were hanged by their hands; the faces of the elders were not honored.

They lifted the young men [to] the hand mill, and the youths stumbled at the wood.

The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their music.

The joy of our heart has ceased; our dance has turned to mourning.

The crown has fallen [from] our head. Woe now to us, for we have sinned!

For this our heart is faint; our eyes are dim for these [things].

Zion [is] laid waste on the mountain; foxes walk about on it.

O Jehovah, You remain forever; Your throne to generation and generation.

Why do You forget us forever, forsake us the length of days?

Return us to You, O Jehovah, and we shall return. Renew our days as of old,

unless You have utterly rejected us; You are exceedingly angry against us.