| NET Bible | International Standard Version |
| 1O LORD, reflect on what has happened to us; consider and look at our disgrace. | 1LORD, remember what has happened to us. Pay attention, and look at our shame! |
| 2Our inheritance is turned over to strangers; foreigners now occupy our homes. | 2Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, and our homes to foreigners. |
| 3We have become fatherless orphans; our mothers have become widows. | 3We are now orphans—without fathers— and our mothers are like widows. |
| 4We must pay money for our own water; we must buy our own wood at a steep price. | 4We pay to drink our own water, and our own wood is sold to us at high price. |
| 5We are pursued--they are breathing down our necks; we are weary and have no rest. | 5Our pursuers breathe down our necks; we are weary, but there is no rest for us. |
| 6We have submitted to Egypt and Assyria in order to buy food to eat. | 6We made a deal with the Egyptians and the Assyrians for the price of food. |
| 7Our forefathers sinned and are dead, but we suffer their punishment. | 7Our ancestors sinned and no longer exist yet we continue to bear the consequences of their sin. |
| 8Slaves rule over us; there is no one to rescue us from their power. | 8Slaves rule over us, and no one delivers us from their control. |
| 9At the risk of our lives we get our food because robbers lurk in the countryside. | 9We risk our lives to obtain our food, facing death in the desert. |
| 10Our skin is hot as an oven due to a fever from hunger. | 10Our skin blisters as from an oven, due to ravaging blasts of the famine. |
| 11They raped women in Zion, virgins in the towns of Judah. | 11They have raped women in Zion, young women in the towns of Judah. |
| 12Princes were hung by their hands; elders were mistreated. | 12Princes they have hung by their hands; elders they have disrespected. |
| 13The young men perform menial labor; boys stagger from their labor. | 13Our young men must grind grain with a millstone; our youths stumble under the weight of wood. |
| 14The elders are gone from the city gate; the young men have stopped playing their music. | 14Our elders have ceased ruling at the gate; our young men have abandoned their music. |
| 15Our hearts no longer have any joy; our dancing is turned to mourning. | 15The joy of our hearts has ceased, and our dancing has turned into dirges. |
| 16The crown has fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned! | 16The crown has fallen from our head— woe to us, because we have sinned! |
| 17Because of this, our hearts are sick; because of these things, we can hardly see through our tears. | 17This is why our hearts faint, and why our eyes grow dim: |
| 18For wild animals are prowling over Mount Zion, which lies desolate. | 18Because Mount Zion is desolate; foxes roam around it. |
| 19But you, O LORD, reign forever; your throne endures from generation to generation. | 19You, LORD, are forever— your throne endures from generation to generation. |
| 20Why do you keep on forgetting us? Why do you forsake us so long? | 20So why have you completely forgotten us, forsaking us for so long? |
| 21Bring us back to yourself, O LORD, so that we may return to you; renew our life as in days before, | 21Restore us to yourself, LORD, so that we may return. Renew our days as before, |
| 22unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure. | 22unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us without limit. |
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