New English [1970], THE NEW ENGLISH BIBLE (OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS; CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE) [word count] [B16000].
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A prayer for remembrance and restoration
1 Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us;
look, and see how we are scorned.
2 Our patrimony is turned over to strangers
and our homes to foreigners.
3 We are like orphans, without a father;
our mothers are like widows.
4 We must buy our own water to drink,
our own wood can only be had at a price.
5 The yoke note is on our necks, we are overdriven;
we are weary and are given no rest.
6 We came to terms, now with the Egyptians,
now with the Assyrians, to provide us with food.
7 Our fathers sinned and are no more,
and we bear the burden of their guilt.
8 Slaves have become our rulers,
and there is no one to rescue us from them.
9 We must bring in our food from the wilderness,
risking our lives in the scorching heat. note
10 Our skins are blackened as in a furnace
by the ravages of starvation.
11 Women were raped in Zion,
virgins raped in the cities of Judah.
12 Princes were hung up by their hands,
and elders received no honour.
13 Young men toil to grind corn,
and boys stumble under loads of wood.
14 Elders have left off their sessions in the gate,
and young men no longer pluck the strings.
15 Joy has fled from our hearts,
and our dances are turned to mourning.
16 The garlands have fallen from our heads;
woe betide us, sinners that we are.
17 For this we are sick at heart,
for all this our eyes grow dim:
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A prayer for remembrance and restoration
18 because Mount Zion is desolate
and over it the jackals run wild.
19 O Lord, thou art enthroned for ever,
thy throne endures from one generation to another.
20 Why wilt thou quite forget us
and forsake us these many days?
21 O Lord, turn us back to thyself, and we will come back;
renew our days as in times long past.
22 For if thou hast utterly rejected us,
then great indeed has been thy anger against us.
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New English [1970], THE NEW ENGLISH BIBLE (OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS; CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE) [word count] [B16000].
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