Read the Bible

¹ Keep in mind, O Lord, what has come to us: take note and see our shame.² Our heritage is given up to men of strange lands, our houses to those who are not our countrymen.³ We are children without fathers, our mothers are like widows.⁴ We give money for a drink of water, we get our wood for a price.⁵ Our attackers are on our necks: overcome with weariness, we have no rest.⁶ We have given our hands to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians so that we might have enough bread.⁷ Our fathers were sinners and are dead; and the weight of their evil-doing is on us.⁸ Servants are ruling over us, and there is no one to make us free from their hands.⁹ We put our lives in danger to get our bread, because of the sword of the waste land.¹⁰ Our skin is heated like an oven because of our burning heat from need of food.¹¹ They took by force the women in Zion, the virgins in the towns of Judah.¹² Their hands put princes to death by hanging: the faces of old men were not honoured.¹³ The young men were crushing the grain, and the boys were falling under the wood.¹⁴ The old men are no longer seated in the doorway, and the music of the young men has come to an end.¹⁵ The joy of our hearts is ended; our dancing is changed into sorrow.¹⁶ The crown has been taken from our head: sorrow is ours, for we are sinners.

¹⁷ Because of this our hearts are feeble; for these things our eyes are dark;¹⁸ Because of the mountain of Zion which is a waste; jackals go over it.¹⁹ You, O Lord, are seated as King for ever; the seat of your power is eternal.²⁰ Why have we gone from your memory for ever? why have you been turned away from us for so long?²¹ Make us come back to you, O Lord, and let us be turned; make our days new again as in the past.²² But you have quite given us up; you are full of wrath against us.