LEB LAM Chapter 5

A Request for Mercy

• 5 Remember, O Yahweh, what has become of us;
• take note, and see our disgrace!
• 2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
  • our houses, to foreigners.
• 3 We have become orphans, fatherless,
  • our mothers are like widows.
• 4 We pay for water with money ,[fn]
  • our wood comes to us at a price.
• 5 We are driven on our necks;
  • we are weary, there is no rest for us.
• 6 We have made a deal with Egypt and Assyria
  • to be satisfied with food.
• 7 Our fathers have sinned, they are no more;
  • we bear their iniquity.
• 8 Slaves rule over us;
  • there is no one to deliver us from their hand.
• 9 We risk our life for food[fn]
  • because of the sword of the desert.
• 10 Our skin is hot like an oven
  • because of the scorching famine.
• 11 They raped women in Zion,
  • young women[fn] in the cities of Judah.
• 12 They hang princes by their hand;
  • they do not show respect before elders.
• 13 Young men must carry a hand-mill
  • and boys stumble under the wood.
• 14 Elders are no longer at the gate,
  • young men no longer play stringed instruments.
• 15 The joy of our hearts has stopped;
  • our circle-dancing has changed to a mourning ceremony.
• 16 The crown has fallen from our head;
  • woe to us, for we have sinned!
• 17 Because of this, our heart has become faint,
  • because of these, our eyes have become dim.
• 18 Because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate,
  • foxes tread on it .[fn]
• 19 You, O Yahweh, will sit forever
  • on your throne for generation to generation.
• 20 Why have you forgotten us forever?
  • Why have you forsaken us for so long ?[fn]
• 21 Restore us to you, O Yahweh, that we will be restored;
  • renew our days as of old.
• 22 Unless you have utterly rejected us,
  • unless you are angry with us beyond measure.