Read the Bible

¹ Remember, O Yahweh, what has come on us: Look, and see our reproach.² Our inheritance has turned to strangers, Our houses to aliens.³ We are orphans and fatherless; Our mothers are as widows.⁴ We have drank our water for money; Our wood is sold to us.⁵ Our pursuers are on our necks: We are weary, and have no rest.⁶ We have given the hand to the Egyptians, And to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.⁷ Our fathers sinned, and are not; And we have borne their iniquities.⁸ Slaves rule over us: There is none to deliver us out of their hand.⁹ We get our bread at the peril of our lives, Because of the sword of the wilderness.¹⁰ Our skin is black like an oven, Because of the burning heat of famine.¹¹ They ravished the women in Zion, The virgins in the cities of Judah.¹² Princes were hanged up by their hand: The faces of elders were not honored.¹³ The young men bore the mill; And the children stumbled under the wood.¹⁴ The elders have ceased from the gate, The young men from their music.¹⁵ The joy of our heart has ceased; Our dance has turned into mourning.¹⁶ The crown has fallen from our head: Woe to us! for we have sinned.

¹⁷ For this our heart is faint; For these things our eyes are dim;¹⁸ For the mountain of Zion, which is desolate: The foxes walk on it.¹⁹ You, O Yahweh, abide forever; Your throne is from generation to generation.²⁰ Why do you forget us forever, [And] forsake us so long time?²¹ Turn us to you, O Yahweh, and we shall be turned; Renew our days as of old.²² But you have completely rejected us; You are very angry against us.