Lamentations 5:1-11

The People of Jerusalem Pray:

5:1 O Lord, reflect on what has happened to us;

consider and look at our disgrace.

5:2 Our inheritance is turned over to strangers;

foreigners now occupy our homes.

5:3 We have become fatherless orphans;

our mothers have become widows.

5:4 We must pay money for our own water;

we must buy our own wood at a steep price.

5:5 We are pursued – they are breathing down our necks;

we are weary and have no rest.

5:6 We have submitted to Egypt and Assyria

in order to buy food to eat.

5:7 Our forefathers sinned and are dead,

but we suffer their punishment.

5:8 Slaves rule over us;

there is no one to rescue us from their power.

5:9 At the risk of our lives we get our food

because robbers lurk in the countryside.

5:10 Our skin is hot as an oven

due to a fever from hunger.

5:11 They raped women in Zion,

virgins in the towns of Judah.