5 

Consider our plight, O Eternal,

ah, look at our disgrace--

2 

our heritage handed to foreigners,

our homes to aliens;

3 

fatherless orphans are we,

our mothers are like widows;

4 

we must buy our own water,

our wood has to be paid for;

6 

we surrendered to the foe,

thinking to get food enough;

5 

but they have borne hard on us,

we toil and get no rest.

7 

Our fathers sinned; they are no more,

but we must bear their guilt.

8 

Slaves now lord it over us,

with none to rescue us;

9 

we get in our corn at the risk of our lives

from Arabs of the desert;

10 

our skin glows like an oven,

with the fever heat of famine.

11 

Women are ravished in Sion,

and girls in the towns of Judah;

12 

nobles hung up by the hand,

and sheikhs outraged.

13 

Nobles stoop to grind at the mill,

lords stagger with loads of logs;

14 

no sheikhs now sit at the city-gates,

no young men at their music!

15 

Gone all that gave our hearts delight,

our dancing turned to mourning;

16 

the crown has fallen from our head!

Ah, woe to us, for we have sinned!

17 

And this makes our heart faint,

and this makes our eyes dim,

18 

that Sion hill lies desolate,

with jackals roaming over it.

19 

Thou art enthroned for ever, O Eternal,

reigning from age to age.

20 

Why wilt thou never remember us,

forsaking us all these years?

21 

Restore us, O Eternal, let us return;

renew our days as of yore--

22 

unless thou hast utterly discarded us

in anger all too sore!