A Prayer for Restoration
Remember, LORD, what has come upon us; look and see our reproach.
Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to foreigners.
We have become orphans, and there is no father; our mothers are like widows.
Our water we have drunk for silver; our wood comes at a price.
On our neck we are pursued; we are weary and no rest is given us.
To Egypt we have given the hand, to Assyria, to be filled with bread.
Our fathers sinned and they are not, and we ourselves have borne their iniquities.
Slaves rule over us; there is none tearing us free from their hand.
With our lives we bring in our bread, because of the sword of the wilderness.
Our skin is scorched like an oven, because of the scorching of famine.
Women in Zion they have violated, virgins in the cities of Judah.
Princes were hanged by their hand; the faces of elders were not honored.
Young men bore the millstone; boys stumbled under the wood.
Elders have ceased from the gate, young men from their song.
The rejoicing of our heart has ceased; our dance is turned to mourning.
The crown has fallen from our head. Woe now to us, for we have sinned!
For this our heart has become sick; for these our eyes have grown dark.
For Mount Zion, which is desolate — foxes walk on it.
You, LORD, sit forever; your throne to generation and generation.
Why do you forget us forever, forsake us for length of days?
Turn us back, LORD, to yourself, and we will turn back; renew our days as of old.
Unless you have utterly rejected us, and are enraged against us beyond measure.