| Chapter 5 |
1 | Keep in mind, O Lord, what has come to us: take note and see our shame.
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2 | Our heritage is given up to men of strange lands, our houses to those who are not our countrymen.
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3 | We are children without fathers, our mothers are like widows.
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4 | We give money for a drink of water, we get our wood for a price.
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5 | Our attackers are on our necks: overcome with weariness, we have no rest.
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6 | We have given our hands to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians so that we might have enough bread.
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7 | Our fathers were sinners and are dead; and the weight of their evil-doing is on us.
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8 | Servants are ruling over us, and there is no one to make us free from their hands.
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9 | We put our lives in danger to get our bread, because of the sword of the waste land.
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10 | Our skin is heated like an oven because of our burning heat from need of food.
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11 | They took by force the women in Zion, the virgins in the towns of Judah.
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12 | Their hands put princes to death by hanging: the faces of old men were not honoured.
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13 | The young men were crushing the grain, and the boys were falling under the wood.
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14 | The old men are no longer seated in the doorway, and the music of the young men has come to an end.
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15 | The joy of our hearts is ended; our dancing is changed into sorrow.
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16 | The crown has been taken from our head: sorrow is ours, for we are sinners.
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17 | Because of this our hearts are feeble; for these things our eyes are dark;
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18 | Because of the mountain of Zion which is a waste; jackals go over it.
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19 | You, O Lord, are seated as King for ever; the seat of your power is eternal.
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20 | Why have we gone from your memory for ever? why have you been turned away from us for so long?
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21 | Make us come back to you, O Lord, and let us be turned; make our days new again as in the past.
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22 | But you have quite given us up; you are full of wrath against us.
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