A Prayer for Restoration

¹ Remember, O LORD, what has come upon us;
Look, and behold our reproach!
² Our inheritance has been turned over to aliens,
And our houses to foreigners.
³ We have become orphans and waifs,
Our mothers are like widows.
⁴ We pay for the water we drink,
And our wood comes at a price.
⁵ They pursue at our heels;^[a]
We labor and have no rest.
⁶ We have given our hand to the Egyptians
And the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.
⁷ Our fathers sinned and are no more,
But we bear their iniquities.
⁸ Servants rule over us;
There is none to deliver us from their hand.
⁹ We get our bread at the risk of our lives,
Because of the sword in the wilderness.
¹⁰ Our skin is hot as an oven,
Because of the fever of famine.
¹¹ They ravished the women in Zion,
The maidens in the cities of Judah.
¹² Princes were hung up by their hands,
And elders were not respected.
¹³ Young men ground at the millstones;
Boys staggered under loads of wood.
¹⁴ The elders have ceased gathering at the gate,
And the young men from their music.
¹⁵ The joy of our heart has ceased;
Our dance has turned into mourning.
¹⁶ The crown has fallen from our head.
Woe to us, for we have sinned!
¹⁷ Because of this our heart is faint;
Because of these things our eyes grow dim;
¹⁸ Because of Mount Zion which is desolate,
With foxes walking about on it.
¹⁹ You, O LORD, remain forever;
Your throne from generation to generation.
²⁰ Why do You forget us forever,
And forsake us for so long a time?
²¹ Turn us back to You, O LORD, and we will be restored;
Renew our days as of old,
²² Unless You have utterly rejected us,
And are very angry with us!