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A Prayer for Restoration

¹ Remember, O LORD, what has happened to us. Look and see our disgrace!² Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to foreigners.³ We have become fatherless orphans; our mothers are widows.⁴ We must buy the water we drink; our wood comes at a price.⁵ We are closely pursued; we are weary and find no rest.⁶ We submitted to Egypt and Assyria, to get enough food.⁷ Our fathers sinned and are no more, but we bear their punishment.⁸ Slaves rule over us; there is no one to deliver us from their hands.⁹ We get our bread at the risk of our lives because of the sword in the wilderness.¹⁰ Our skin is as hot as an oven because of the burning of famine.¹¹ Women have been ravished in Zion, virgins in the cities of Judah.¹² Princes have been hung up by their hands; elders receive no respect.¹³ Young men toil at millstones; boys stagger under loads of wood.¹⁴ The elders have left the city gate; the young men have stopped their music.¹⁵ Joy has left our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning.¹⁶ The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned!

¹⁷ Because of this, our hearts are faint; because of these, our eyes grow dim:¹⁸ because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate, haunted by the jackals.¹⁹ You, O LORD, reign forever; Your throne endures from generation to generation.²⁰ Why have You forgotten us forever? Why have You forsaken us for so long?²¹ Restore us to Yourself, O LORD, so we may return; renew our days as of old,²² unless You have utterly rejected us and remain angry with us beyond measure.