5:1 1 O Lord, reflect on 2 what has happened to us;
consider 3 and look at 4 our disgrace.
5:2 Our inheritance 5 is turned over to strangers;
foreigners now occupy our homes. 6
5:3 We have become fatherless orphans;
our mothers have become widows.
5:4 We must pay money 7 for our own water; 8
we must buy our own wood at a steep price. 9
5:5 We are pursued – they are breathing down our necks; 10
we are weary and have no rest. 11
5:6 We have submitted 12 to Egypt and Assyria
in order to buy food to eat. 13
5:7 Our forefathers 14 sinned and are dead, 15
but we 16 suffer 17 their punishment. 18
5:8 Slaves 19 rule over us;
there is no one to rescue us from their power. 20
5:9 At the risk 21 of our lives 22 we get our food 23
because robbers lurk 24 in the countryside. 25
5:10 Our skin is hot as an oven
due to a fever from hunger. 26
5:11 They raped 27 women in Zion,
virgins in the towns of Judah.
5:12 Princes were hung by their hands;
elders were mistreated. 28
5:13 The young men perform menial labor; 29
boys stagger from their labor. 30
5:14 The elders are gone from the city gate;
the young men have stopped playing their music.
5:15 Our hearts no longer have any joy; 31
our dancing is turned to mourning.
5:16 The crown has fallen from our head;
woe to us, for we have sinned!
5:17 Because of this, our hearts are sick; 32
because of these things, we can hardly see 33 through our tears. 34
5:18 For wild animals 35 are prowling over Mount Zion,
which lies desolate.
5:19 But you, O Lord, reign forever;
your throne endures from generation to generation.