A Prayer for Mercy and Restoration
1Remember,O LORD,what is come upon us: consider,and beholdour reproach.
2Our inheritanceis turnedto strangers,our housesto aliens.
3We are orphansand fatherless,our mothers[are] as widows.
4We have drunkenour waterfor money;our woodis soldunto us.
5Our necks[are] under persecution:we labour,[and] have no rest.
6We have giventhe hand[to] the Egyptians,[and to] the Assyrians,to be satisfiedwith bread.
7Our fathershave sinned,[and are] not;and we have bornetheir iniquities.
8Servantshave ruledover us: [there is] none that doth deliver[us] out of their hand.
9We gatour breadwith [the peril of] our livesbecauseof the swordof the wilderness.
10Our skinwas blacklike an ovenbecauseof the terriblefamine.
11They ravishedthe womenin Zion,[and] the maidsin the citiesof Judah.
12Princesare hanged upby their hand:the facesof elderswere not honoured.
13They tookthe young mento grind,and the childrenfellunder the wood.
14The eldershave ceasedfrom the gate,the young menfrom their musick.
15The joyof our heartis ceased;our danceis turnedinto mourning.
16The crownis fallen[from] our head:woeunto us, that we have sinned!
17For this our heartis faint;for these [things] our eyesare dim.
18Because of the mountainof Zion,which is desolate,the foxeswalkupon it.
19Thou, O LORD,remainestfor ever;thy thronefrom generationto generation.
20Wherefore dost thou forgetus for ever,[and] forsakeus so longtime?
21Turnthou us unto thee, O LORD,and we shall be turned;renewour daysas of old.
22But thou hast utterlyrejectedus; thou art verywrothagainst us.
