^1. Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us; behold, and see our disgrace!

^2. Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to aliens.

^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. With a yoke on our necks we are hard driven; we are weary, we are given no rest.

^6. We have given the hand to Egypt, and to Assyria, to get bread enough.

^7. Our fathers sinned, and are no more; and we bear their iniquities.

^8. Slaves rule over us; there is none to deliver us from their hand.

^9. We get our bread at the peril of our lives, because of the sword in the wilderness.

^10. Our skin is hot as an oven with the burning heat of famine.

^11. Women are ravished in Zion, virgins in the towns of Judah.

^12. Princes are hung up by their hands; no respect is shown to the elders.

^13. Young men are compelled to grind at the mill; and boys stagger under loads of wood.

^14. The old men have quit the city gate, the young men their music.

^15. The joy of our hearts has ceased; our dancing has been turned to mourning.

^16. The crown has fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned!

^17. For this our heart has become sick, for these things our eyes have grown dim,

^18. for Mount Zion which lies desolate; jackals prowl over it.

^19. But thou, O LORD, dost reign for ever; thy throne endures to all generations.

^20. Why dost thou forget us for ever, why dost thou so long forsake us?

^21. Restore us to thyself, O LORD, that we may be restored! Renew our days as of old!

^22. Or hast thou utterly rejected us? Art thou exceedingly angry with us?

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