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Lamentations 5 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

Restore Us to Yourself, O Lord

¶

Lam 5:1Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us;
look, and see our disgrace!

Lam 5:2Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
our homes to foreigners.

Lam 5:3We have become orphans, fatherless;
our mothers are like widows.

Lam 5:4We must pay for the water we drink;
the wood we get must be bought.

Lam 5:5Our pursuers are at our necks;
we are weary; we are given no rest.

Lam 5:6We have given the hand to Egypt, and to Assyria,
to get bread enough.

Lam 5:7Our fathers sinned, and are no more;
and we bear their iniquities.

Lam 5:8Slaves rule over us;
there is none to deliver us from their hand.

Lam 5:9We get our bread at the peril of our lives,
because of the sword in the wilderness.

Lam 5:10Our skin is hot as an oven
with the burning heat of famine.

Lam 5:11Women are raped in Zion,
young women in the towns of Judah.

Lam 5:12Princes are hung up by their hands;
no respect is shown to the elders.

Lam 5:13Young men are compelled to grind at the mill,
and boys stagger under loads of wood.

Lam 5:14The old men have left the city gate,
the young men their music.

Lam 5:15The joy of our hearts has ceased;
our dancing has been turned to mourning.

Lam 5:16The crown has fallen from our head;
woe to us, for we have sinned!

Lam 5:17For this our heart has become sick,
for these things our eyes have grown dim,

Lam 5:18for Mount Zion which lies desolate;
jackals prowl over it.

Lam 5:19But you, O LORD, reign forever;
your throne endures to all generations.

Lam 5:20Why do you forget us forever,
why do you forsake us for so many days?

Lam 5:21Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may be restored!
Renew our days as of old—

Lam 5:22unless you have utterly rejected us,
and you remain exceedingly angry with us.

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For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.