Good Friday: Lamentations 5

Remember, 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^[a] on our necks we are hard driven;

    we are weary, we are given no rest.

⁶ We have made a pact with^[b] 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 forever;

    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.