5
1 Remember, Hashem, what is come upon us;
consider, and behold our reproach.
2 Our nachalah is turned over to zarim,
our batim (houses) to foreigners.
3 We are yetomim and fatherless,
immoteinu are like almanot.
4 We must pay kesef for our own mayim;
our wood is sold unto us.
5 Our necks are under persecution;
we are weary, and have no rest.
6 We have submitted to the Mitzrayim,
and to the Assyrians, to get enough lechem.
7 Avoteinu have sinned, and are no more;
and we have borne their iniquities.
8 Avadim have ruled over us;
there is none that doth deliver us out of their yad.
9 We get our lechem with the peril of our lives
because of the cherev of the midbar.
10 Our skin was hot like an oven
because we burn with ra'av (hunger, famine).
11 They ravished the nashim in Tziyon,
and the betulot in the towns of Yehudah.
12 Sarim (princes) are hanged by their yad;
the faces of Zekenim were not respected.
13 They took the bochurim to grind,
and the ne'arim staggered under the wood.
14 The zekenim have ceased from the sha'ar,
the bochurim from their music.
15 The joy of our heart is gone;
mekholeinu (our dance) is turned into mourning.
16 The ateret is fallen from our head;
woe unto us, for we have sinned!
17 For this our lev is faint;
because of these things our eyes are dim.
18 Because of the Har Tziyon, which is desolate,
the jackals prowl upon it.
19 Thou, Hashem, remainest forever;
Thy throne from generation to generation.
20 Why dost Thou forget us forever,
and forsake us for so long?
21 Restore us, Hashem, to Thyself
that we may return;
renew yamenu (our days) as of old.
22 Unless Thou hast utterly rejected us
and Thou art angry with us beyond measure.