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¹ Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us; behold, and see our disgrace!² Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to aliens.³ We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are like widows.⁴ We must pay for the water we drink, the wood we get must be bought.⁵ With a yoke on our necks we are hard driven; we are weary, we are given no rest.⁶ We have given the hand to Egypt, and to Assyria, to get bread enough.⁷ Our fathers sinned, and are no more; and we bear their iniquities.⁸ Slaves rule over us; there is none to deliver us from their hand.⁹ We get our bread at the peril of our lives, because of the sword in the wilderness.¹⁰ Our skin is hot as an oven with the burning heat of famine.¹¹ Women are ravished in Zion, virgins in the towns of Judah.¹² Princes are hung up by their hands; no respect is shown to the elders.¹³ Young men are compelled to grind at the mill; and boys stagger under loads of wood.¹⁴ The old men have quit the city gate, the young men their music.¹⁵ The joy of our hearts has ceased; our dancing has been turned to mourning.¹⁶ The crown has fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned!

¹⁷ For this our heart has become sick, for these things our eyes have grown dim,¹⁸ for Mount Zion which lies desolate; jackals prowl over it.¹⁹ But thou, O LORD, dost reign for ever; thy throne endures to all generations.²⁰ Why dost thou forget us for ever, why dost thou so long forsake us?²¹ Restore us to thyself, O LORD, that we may be restored! Renew our days as of old!²² Or hast thou utterly rejected us? Art thou exceedingly angry with us?