A Request for Mercy

• 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.