| 1 | Keep in mind, O Lord, what has come to us: take note and see our shame. |
| 2 | Our heritage is given up to men of strange lands, our houses to those who are not our countrymen. |
| 3 | We are children without fathers, our mothers are like widows. |
| 4 | We give money for a drink of water, we get our wood for a price. |
| 5 | Our attackers are on our necks: overcome with weariness, we have no rest. |
| 6 | We have given our hands to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians so that we might have enough bread. |
| 7 | Our fathers were sinners and are dead; and the weight of their evil-doing is on us. |
| 8 | Servants are ruling over us, and there is no one to make us free from their hands. |
| 9 | We put our lives in danger to get our bread, because of the sword of the waste land. |
| 10 | Our skin is heated like an oven because of our burning heat from need of food. |
| 11 | They took by force the women in Zion, the virgins in the towns of Judah. |
| 12 | Their hands put princes to death by hanging: the faces of old men were not honoured. |
| 13 | The young men were crushing the grain, and the boys were falling under the wood. |
| 14 | The old men are no longer seated in the doorway, and the music of the young men has come to an end. |
| 15 | The joy of our hearts is ended; our dancing is changed into sorrow. |
| 16 | The crown has been taken from our head: sorrow is ours, for we are sinners. |
| 17 | Because of this our hearts are feeble; for these things our eyes are dark; |
| 18 | Because of the mountain of Zion which is a waste; jackals go over it. |
| 19 | You, O Lord, are seated as King for ever; the seat of your power is eternal. |
| 20 | Why have we gone from your memory for ever? why have you been turned away from us for so long? |
| 21 | Make us come back to you, O Lord, and let us be turned; make our days new again as in the past. |
| 22 | But you have quite given us up; you are full of wrath against us. |