1. Remember, Adonai, what has come upon us. Look, and see our disgrace!
2. Our inheritance is turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners.
3. We have become orphans, fatherless, our mothers are like widows.
4. We pay silver for the water we drink; our wood comes at a price.
5. Our pursuers are at our necks. We are weary and have no rest.
6. We have held out our hand to Egypt and Assyria to be satisfied with bread.
7. Our fathers sinned and are no more, but we bear their punishment.
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 desert.
10. Our skin is hot as an oven due to fever from famine.
11. The women in Zion have been ravished, maidens in the towns of Judah.
12. Princes are hung up by their hands; elders are dishonored.
13. Young men toil at the millstone. Boys stagger under loads of wood.
14. Elders are gone from the gate, young men from their music.
15. Joy has ceased in our hearts. Our dance has turned into mourning.
16. The crown has fallen from our head. Oy to us, for we have sinned!
17. Because of this our heart is faint, for these things our eyes are dim,
18. for Mount Zion, which lies desolate, as jackals prowl over it.
19. You, Adonai, are enthroned forever; Your throne endures from generation to generation.
20. Why do You always forget us and forsake us for so long?
21. Bring us back to You, Adonai, and we will return. Renew our days as of old—
22. unless You have utterly rejected us and are exceedingly angry with us.