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A Plea for Mercy

5Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us;
   look, 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 made a pact with^* Egypt and Assyria,
   to get enough bread.
⁷ Our ancestors sinned; they are no more,
   and we bear their iniquities.
⁸ Slaves rule over us;
   there is no one 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 black as an oven
   from the scorching heat of famine.
¹¹ Women are raped 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,
   and boys stagger under loads of wood.
¹⁴ The old men have left 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 Because of this our hearts are sick,
   because of these things our eyes have grown dim:
¹⁸ because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate;
   jackals prowl over it.

¹⁹ But you, O Lord, reign for ever;
   your throne endures to all generations.
²⁰ Why have you forgotten us completely?
   Why have you forsaken us these many days?
²¹ Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored;
   renew our days as of old—
²² unless you have utterly rejected us,
   and are angry with us beyond measure.