A Prayer for the Restoration of Judah

ca. 1200–332 BCE

About This Entry

For other selections from the book of Lamentations, see Poetry.

1Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us;
Behold, and see our disgrace!
2Our heritage has passed to aliens,
Our homes to strangers.
3We have become orphans, fatherless;
Our mothers are like widows.
4We must pay to drink our own water,
Obtain our own kindling at a price.
5We are hotly pursued;
Exhausted, we are given no rest.
6We hold out a hand to Egypt;
To Assyria, for our fill of bread.
7Our fathers sinned and are no more;
And we must bear their guilt.
8Slaves are ruling over us,
With none to rescue us from them.
9We get our bread at the peril of our lives,
Because of the sword of the wilderness.
10Our skin glows like an oven,
With the fever of famine.
11aTheyahave ravished women in Zion,
Maidens in the towns of Judah.
12Princes have been hanged by them;
No respect has been shown to elders.
13Young men must carry millstones,
And youths stagger under loads of wood.
14The old men are gone from the gate,
The young men from their music.
15Gone is the joy of our hearts;
Our dancing is turned into mourning.
16The crown has fallen from our head;
Woe to us that we have sinned!
17Because of this our hearts are sick,
Because of these our eyes are dimmed:
18Because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate;
Jackals prowl over it.
19But You, O Lord, are enthroned forever,
Your throne endures through the ages.
20Why have You forgotten us utterly,
Forsaken us for all time?
21Take us back, O Lord, to Yourself,
And let us come back;
Renew our days as of old!
22For truly, You have rejected us,
Bitterly raged against us.
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Notes

I.e., the slaves of v. 8.

Credits

Reprinted from Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures by permission of the University of Nebraska Press. Copyright 1985 by the Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 1.

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For other selections from the book of Lamentations, see Poetry.

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