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5:1  O Lord, [earnestly] remember what has come upon us! Look down and see our reproach (our national disgrace)!
5:2  Our inheritance has fallen over to strangers, our houses to foreigners.
5:3  We have become orphans and fatherless; our mothers are like widows.
5:4  We have had to pay money to drink the water that belongs to us; our [own] wood is sold to us.
5:5  Our pursuers are upon our necks [like a yoke]; we are weary and are allowed no rest.
5:6  We have given the hand [as a pledge of fidelity and submission] to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians [merely] to get food to satisfy [our hunger].
5:7  Our fathers sinned and are no more, and we have borne their iniquities.
5:8  Servants and slaves rule over us; there is none to deliver us out of their hands.
5:9  We get our bread at the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness [the wild Arabs, who may attack if we venture into the fields to reap our harvests].
5:10  Our skin glows and is parched as from [the heat of] an oven because of the burning heat of [the fever of] famine.
5:11  They ravished the women in Zion, the virgins in the cities of Judah.
5:12  They hung princes by their hands; the persons of elders were not respected.
5:13  Young men carried millstones, and boys fell [staggering] under [burdens of] wood.
5:14  The elders have ceased from [congregating at] the city’s gate, the young men from their music.
5:15  Ceased is the joy of our hearts; our dancing has turned into mourning.
5:16  The crown has fallen from our head [our honor is brought to the dust]! Woe to us, for we have sinned!
5:17  Because of this our hearts are faint and sick; because of these things our eyes are dim and see darkly.
5:18  As for Mount Zion, which lies desolate, the jackals prowl over it!
5:19  But You, O Lord, remain and reign forever; Your throne endures from generation to [all] generations.
5:20  Why do You forget us forever? Why do You forsake us so long?
5:21  Turn us to Yourself, O Lord, and we shall be turned and restored! Renew our days as of old!—
5:22  Or have You utterly rejected us? Or are You exceedingly angry with us [still]?