¹ O Lord, reflect on what has happened to us; consider and look at our disgrace. ²Our inheritance is turned over to strangers; foreigners now occupy our homes. ³We have become fatherless orphans; our mothers have become widows. ⁴We must pay money for our own water; we must buy our own wood at a steep price. ⁵We are pursued—they are breathing down our necks; we are weary and have no rest. ⁶We have submitted to Egypt and Assyria in order to buy food to eat.⁷Our forefathers sinned and are dead, but we suffer their punishment. ⁸Slaves rule over us; there is no one to rescue us from their power. ⁹At the risk of our lives we get our food because robbers lurk in the wilderness.¹⁰Our skin is as hot as an oven due to a fever from hunger. ¹¹They raped women in Zion, virgins in the towns of Judah. ¹²Princes were hung by their hands; elders were mistreated. ¹³The young men perform menial labor; boys stagger from their labor. ¹⁴The elders are gone from the city gate; the young men have stopped playing their music. ¹⁵Our hearts no longer have any joy; our dancing is turned to mourning. ¹⁶The crown has fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned! ¹⁷Because of this, our hearts are sick; because of these things, we can hardly see through our tears. ¹⁸For wild animals are prowling over Mount Zion, which lies desolate. ¹⁹But you, O Lord, reign forever; your throne endures from generation to generation. ²⁰Why do you keep on forgetting us? Why do you forsake us so long? ²¹Bring us back to yourself, O Lord, so that we may return to you; renew our life as in days before, ²²unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure.