Restore Us to Yourself, O Lord
aRemember, O Lord, what has befallen us;
look, and see bour disgrace!
2 aOur inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
our homes to foreigners.
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 aOur pursuers are at our necks;
we are weary; we are given no rest.
6 We have given the hand to aEgypt, and to aAssyria,
to get bread enough.
7 Our fathers sinned, and are no more;
aand we bear their iniquities.
8 aSlaves rule over us;
there is none to deliver us from their hand.
9 aWe get our bread at the peril of our lives,
because of the sword in the wilderness.
10 aOur skin is hot as an oven
with bthe burning heat of famine.
11 Women are raped in Zion,
young women in the towns of Judah.
12 aPrinces are hung up by their hands;
bno respect is shown to the elders.
13 Young men are compelled to agrind at the mill,
and boys stagger bunder loads of wood.
14 aThe old men have left the city gate,
the young men btheir music.
15 aThe joy of our hearts has ceased;
bour dancing has been turned to mourning.
16 aThe crown has fallen from our head;
woe to us, for we have sinned!
17 For this aour heart has become sick,
for these things bour eyes have grown dim,
18 for Mount Zion which lies desolate;
ajackals prowl over it.
19 aBut you, O Lord, reign forever;
your throne endures to all generations.
20 aWhy do you forget us forever,
why do you forsake us for so many days?
21 aRestore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored!
Renew our days as of old—
22 aunless you have utterly rejected us,
and you remain exceedingly angry with us.