5:2 Our inheritance 1 is turned over to strangers;
foreigners now occupy our homes. 2
5:3 We have become fatherless orphans;
our mothers have become widows.
5:4 We must pay money 3 for our own water; 4
we must buy our own wood at a steep price. 5
5:5 We are pursued – they are breathing down our necks; 6
we are weary and have no rest. 7
5:6 We have submitted 8 to Egypt and Assyria
in order to buy food to eat. 9
5:7 Our forefathers 10 sinned and are dead, 11
but we 12 suffer 13 their punishment. 14
5:8 Slaves 15 rule over us;
there is no one to rescue us from their power. 16
5:9 At the risk 17 of our lives 18 we get our food 19
because robbers lurk 20 in the countryside. 21
5:10 Our skin is hot as an oven
due to a fever from hunger. 22
5:11 They raped 23 women in Zion,
virgins in the towns of Judah.
5:12 Princes were hung by their hands;
elders were mistreated. 24
5:13 The young men perform menial labor; 25
boys stagger from their labor. 26
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; 27
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; 28
because of these things, we can hardly see 29 through our tears. 30
5:18 For wild animals 31 are prowling over Mount Zion,
which lies desolate.
5:19 But you, O Lord, reign forever;
your throne endures from generation to generation.
5:20 Why do you keep on forgetting 32 us?
Why do you forsake us so long?
5:21 Bring us back to yourself, O Lord, so that we may return 33 to you;
renew our life 34 as in days before, 35
5:22 unless 36 you have utterly rejected us 37
and are angry with us beyond measure. 38