¹Remember, Yahweh, what has happened to us; look, and see our reproach.

²Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to foreigners.

³We have become fatherless, with no father; our mothers are like widows.

⁴We have drunk our water for silver; our wood comes at a price.

⁵On our necks we are pursued; we have toiled, and no rest is given to us.

⁶To Egypt we have given the hand, and to Assyria, to be satisfied with bread.

⁷Our fathers sinned and are no more; and we have borne their guilt.

⁸Slaves rule over us; there is no one to tear us away from their hand.

⁹At the risk of our being we bring in our bread, in the face of the sword of the wilderness.

¹⁰Our skin has grown hot like an oven, from the scorching of famine.

¹¹They have afflicted women in Zion, virgins in the cities of Judah.

¹²Officials were hanged by their hand; the face of elders was not honored.

¹³Young men have lifted the grinding-mill, and boys stagger under wood.

¹⁴Elders have ceased from the gate, young men from their music.

¹⁵The joy of our heart has ceased; our dancing has been turned into mourning.

¹⁶The crown of our head has fallen. Woe to us, for we have sinned!

¹⁷Because of this our heart has become faint; because of these things our eyes have grown dark.

¹⁸Over the mountain of Zion, which lies desolate, foxes walk about on it.

¹⁹You, Yahweh, will dwell forever; your throne endures from generation to generation.

²⁰Why will you forget us perpetually, abandon us for the length of days?

²¹Turn us back to yourself, Yahweh, and we will return; renew our days as in ancient time.

²²Or else you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us exceedingly.