1 Remember, O HaShem, what is come upon us; behold, and see our reproach.

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

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

4 We have drunk our water for money; our wood cometh to us for price.

5 To our very necks we are pursued; we labour, and have no rest.

6 We have given the hand to Egypt, and to Assyria, to have bread enough;

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

8 Servants rule over us; there is none to deliver us out of their hand.

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

10 Our skin is hot like an oven because of the burning heat of famine.

11 They have ravished the women in Zion, the maidens in the cities of Judah.

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

13 The young men have borne the mill, and the children have stumbled under the wood.

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

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

16 The crown is fallen from our head; woe unto us! for we have sinned.

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

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

19 Thou, O HaShem, art enthroned for ever, Thy throne is from generation to generation.

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

21 Turn Thou us unto Thee, O HaShem, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.

22 Thou canst not have utterly rejected us, and be exceeding wroth against us!

Sources: Portions copyright © 1997 by Benyamin Pilant, All Rights Reserved
JPS Electronic Edition Copyright © 1998 by Larry Nelson, All Rights Reserved
Jewish Bible

The Book of Eichah (Lamentations): Chapter 5