A Prayer for Restoration

5 Remember, O Lord, what has come upon us;Look, and behold our reproach!² Our inheritance has been turned over to aliens,And our houses to foreigners.³ We have become orphans and waifs,Our mothers are like widows.

⁴ We pay for the water we drink,And our wood comes at a price.⁵ They pursue at our heels;^[a]We labor and have no rest.⁶ We have given our hand to the EgyptiansAnd the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.

⁷ Our fathers sinned and are no more,But we bear their iniquities.⁸ Servants rule over us;There is none to deliver us from their hand.⁹ We get our bread at the risk of our lives,Because of the sword in the wilderness.

¹⁰ Our skin is hot as an oven,Because of the fever of famine.¹¹ They ravished the women in Zion,The maidens in the cities of Judah.¹² Princes were hung up by their hands,And elders were not respected.¹³ Young men ground at the millstones;Boys staggered under loads of wood.¹⁴ The elders have ceased gathering at the gate,And 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 Because of this our heart is faint;Because of these things our eyes grow dim;¹⁸ Because of Mount Zion which is desolate,With foxes walking about on it.

¹⁹ You, O Lord, remain forever;Your throne from generation to generation.²⁰ Why do You forget us forever,And forsake us for so long a time?²¹ Turn us back to You, O Lord, and we will be restored;Renew our days as of old,²² Unless You have utterly rejected us,And are very angry with us!