A Prayer for Restoration

Remember, O LORD, what has happened to us.

Look and see our disgrace!

2 

Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,

our houses to foreigners.

3 

We have become fatherless orphans;

our mothers are widows.

4 

We must buy the water we drink;

our wood comes at a price.

5 

We are closely pursued;

we are weary [and find] no rest.

6 

We submitted to Egypt [and] Assyria

to get enough bread.

7 

Our fathers sinned [and are] no more,

but we bear their punishment.

8 

Slaves rule over us;

[there is] no one to deliver us from their hands.

9 

We get our bread at the risk of our lives

because of the sword in the wilderness.

10 

Our skin is as hot as an oven

with fever from [our] hunger.

11 

Women have been ravished in Zion,

virgins in the cities of Judah.

12 

Princes have been hung up by their hands;

elders receive no respect

13 

Young men toil at millstones;

boys stagger under loads of wood.

14 

The elders have left the city gate;

the young men [have stopped] their music.

15 

Joy has left our hearts;

our dancing has turned to mourning.

16 

The crown has fallen from our head.

Woe to us, for we have sinned!

17 

Because of this, our hearts are faint;

because of these, our eyes grow dim—

18 

because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate,

patrolled by foxes.

19 

You, O LORD, reign forever;

Your throne endures from generation to generation.

20 

Why have You forgotten us forever?

Why have You forsaken us for so long

21 

Restore us to Yourself, O LORD, so we may return;

renew our days as of old,

22 

unless You have utterly rejected us

and remain angry with us beyond measure