Read the Bible

¹ Lord, remember what has happened to us.
    See how we have been disgraced!
² Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
    our homes to foreigners.
³ We are orphaned and fatherless.
    Our mothers are widowed.
⁴ We have to pay for water to drink,
    and even firewood is expensive.
⁵ Those who pursue us are at our heels;
    we are exhausted but are given no rest.
⁶ We submitted to Egypt and Assyria
    to get enough food to survive.
⁷ Our ancestors sinned, but they have died—
    and we are suffering the punishment they deserved!

⁸ Slaves have now become our masters;
    there is no one left to rescue us.
⁹ We hunt for food at the risk of our lives,
    for violence rules the countryside.
¹⁰ The famine has blackened our skin
    as though baked in an oven.
¹¹ Our enemies rape the women in Jerusalem^[a]
    and the young girls in all the towns of Judah.
¹² Our princes are being hanged by their thumbs,
    and our elders are treated with contempt.
¹³ Young men are led away to work at millstones,
    and boys stagger under heavy loads of wood.
¹⁴ The elders no longer sit in the city gates;
    the young men no longer dance and sing.
¹⁵ Joy has left our hearts;
    our dancing has turned to mourning.
¹⁶ The garlands have^[b] fallen from our heads.
    Weep for us because we have sinned.
¹⁷ Our hearts are sick and weary,
    and our eyes grow dim with tears.
¹⁸ For Jerusalem^[c] is empty and desolate,
    a place haunted by jackals.

¹⁹ But Lord, you remain the same forever!
    Your throne continues from generation to generation.
²⁰ Why do you continue to forget us?
    Why have you abandoned us for so long?
²¹ Restore us, O Lord, and bring us back to you again!
    Give us back the joys we once had!
²² Or have you utterly rejected us?
    Are you angry with us still?