A Prayer for Mercy and Restoration

1Remember, O Lord, what has happened to us: behold, and look on our reproach.

2Our inheritance has been turned away to aliens, our houses to strangers:

3we are become orphans, we have no father, our mothers are as widows.

4We have drunk our water for money; our wood is sold to us for a burden on our neck:

5we have been persecuted, we have laboured, we have had no rest.

6Egypt gave the hand to us, Assur to their own satisfaction.

7Our fathers sinned, and are not: we have borne their iniquities.

8Servants have ruled over us: there is none to ransom us out of their hand.

9We shall bring in our bread with danger of our lives, because of the sword of the wilderness.

10Our skin is blackened like an oven; they are convulsed, because of the storms of famine.

11They humbled the women in Sion, the virgins in the cities of Juda.

12Princes were hanged up by their hands: the elders were not honoured.

13The chosen men lifted up the voice in weeping, and the youths fainted under the wood.

14And the elders ceased from the gate, the chosen men ceased from their music.

15The joy of our heart has ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.

16The crown has fallen from our head: yea, woe to us! for we have sinned.

17For this has grief come; our heart is sorrowful: for this our eyes are darkened.

18Over the mountain of Sion, because it is made desolate, foxes have walked therein.

19But thou, O Lord, shalt dwell for ever; thy throne shall endure to generation and generation.

20Wherefore wilt thou utterly forget us, and abandon us a long time?

21Turn us, O Lord, to thee, and we shall be turned; and renew our days as before.

22For thou hast indeed rejected us; thou hast been very wroth against us.