Restore Us to Yourself, O Lord

¹cRemember, O Lord, what has befallen us;

look, and see dour disgrace!

²eOur inheritance has been turned over to strangers,

our homes to foreigners.

³We have become orphans, fatherless;

our mothers are like widows.

⁴We must pay for the water we drink;

the wood we get must be bought.

⁵fOur pursuers are at our necks;

we are weary; we are given no rest.

⁶We have given the hand to gEgypt, and to gAssyria,

to get bread enough.

⁷Our fathers sinned, and are no more;

hand we bear their iniquities.

⁸iSlaves rule over us;

there is none to deliver us from their hand.

⁹jWe get our bread at the peril of our lives,

because of the sword in the wilderness.

¹⁰kOur skin is hot as an oven

with lthe burning heat of famine.

¹¹Women are raped in Zion,

young women in the towns of Judah.

¹²mPrinces are hung up by their hands;

nno respect is shown to the elders.

¹³Young men are compelled to ogrind at the mill,

and boys stagger punder loads of wood.

¹⁴nThe old men have left the city gate,

the young men qtheir music.

¹⁵qThe joy of our hearts has ceased;

rour dancing has been turned to mourning.

¹⁶sThe crown has fallen from our head;

woe to us, for we have sinned!

¹⁷For this tour heart has become sick,

for these things uour eyes have grown dim,

¹⁸for Mount Zion which lies desolate;

vjackals prowl over it.

¹⁹wBut you, O Lord, reign forever;

your throne endures to all generations.

²⁰xWhy do you forget us forever,

why do you forsake us for so many days?

²¹yRestore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored!

Renew our days as of old—

²²zunless you have utterly rejected us,

and you remain exceedingly angry with us.