Lamentations

Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.

1LORD, remember what has happened to us. Look and see how we are shamed.

2Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.

2The land our family passed down to us now belongs to strangers. Our houses belong to foreigners.

3We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.

3We are like children with no father. Our mothers are like widows.

4We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.

4We have to buy the water we drink. We have to pay for our own firewood.

5Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest.

5Those who chase us are right behind us. We are worn out and get no rest.

6We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.

6We gave in to Egypt and Assyria just to get enough bread to eat.

7Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities.

7Our fathers sinned, and now they are gone. We are the ones carrying the punishment for what they did.

8Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand.

8Slaves rule over us, and no one can free us from their power.

9We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness.

9We risk our lives to get bread, because enemies with swords wait in the open country.

10Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.

10Our skin is hot as an oven, burning with fever from hunger.

11They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.

11Enemies forced themselves on the women in Zion and on the young girls in the towns of Judah.

12Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured.

12Princes were hung up by their hands. Older men were shown no respect.

Note"Princes are hanged up by their hand" means they were strung up by their hands, not that they were hanged by the neck.

13They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.

13Young men were put to work grinding grain. Boys stumbled under heavy loads of wood.

14The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick.

14The older men no longer sit at the city gate. The young men no longer make music.

NoteThe city gate was where older men sat to judge cases and settle arguments. Leaving the gate means the town's normal order had stopped.

15The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.

15The joy in our hearts is gone. Our dancing has turned into weeping.

16The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!

16The crown has fallen off our head. How terrible for us, because we have sinned!

NoteThe crown here stands for honor and rule. Losing it means the people lost their king and their standing.

17For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.

17Because of this our hearts are weak. Because of these things our eyes cannot see clearly.

18Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.

18Mount Zion lies empty and ruined, and foxes prowl across it.

19Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.

19But you, LORD, rule forever. Your throne lasts for all time.

20Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?

20So why do you forget us for so long? Why do you turn away from us for all these years?

21Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.

21Bring us back to yourself, LORD, so we can return. Make our days like they were before,

22But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.

22unless you have completely turned away from us and are still angry with us.