A Prayer for Restoration 1 WBS Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach. BSB BSB: Remember, O LORD, what has happened to us. Look and see our disgrace!
2 WBS Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens. BSB BSB: Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to foreigners.
3 WBS We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows. BSB BSB: We have become fatherless orphans; our mothers are widows.
4 WBS We have drank our water for money; our wood is sold to us. BSB BSB: We must buy the water we drink; our wood comes at a price.
5 WBS Our necks are under persecution: we labor, and have no rest. BSB BSB: We are closely pursued; we are weary and find no rest.
6 WBS We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread. BSB BSB: We submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get enough bread.
7 WBS Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities. BSB BSB: Our fathers sinned and are no more, but we bear their punishment.
8 WBS Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand. BSB BSB: Slaves rule over us; there is no one to deliver us from their hands.
9 WBS We procured our bread with the peril of our lives, because of the sword of the wilderness. BSB BSB: We get our bread at the risk of our lives because of the sword in the wilderness.
10 WBS Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine. BSB BSB: Our skin is as hot as an oven with fever from our hunger.
11 WBS They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah. BSB BSB: Women have been ravished in Zion, virgins in the cities of Judah.
12 WBS Princes were hanged by their hand: the faces of elders were not honored. BSB BSB: Princes have been hung up by their hands; elders receive no respect.
13 WBS They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood. BSB BSB: Young men toil at millstones; boys stagger under loads of wood.
14 WBS The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their music. BSB BSB: The elders have left the city gate; the young men have stopped their music.
15 WBS The joy of our heart hath ceased; our dance is turned into mourning. BSB BSB: Joy has left our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning.
16 WBS The crown is fallen from our head: woe to us, that we have sinned! BSB BSB: The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned!
17 WBS For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim. BSB BSB: Because of this, our hearts are faint; because of these, our eyes grow dim—
18 WBS Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it. BSB BSB: because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate, patrolled by foxes.
19 WBS Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation. BSB BSB: You, O LORD, reign forever; Your throne endures from generation to generation.
20 WBS Why dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time? BSB BSB: Why have You forgotten us forever? Why have You forsaken us for so long?
21 WBS Turn thou us to thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old. BSB BSB: Restore us to Yourself, O LORD, so we may return; renew our days as of old,
22 WBS But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us. BSB BSB: unless You have utterly rejected us and remain angry with us beyond measure.