King James Version KJV
Good News Translation GNT
1 Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.
1
Remember, O Lord, what has happened to us. Look at us, and see our disgrace.
2 Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.
2
Our property is in the hands of strangers; foreigners are living in our homes.
3 We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.
3
Our fathers have been killed by the enemy, and now our mothers are widows.
4 We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.
4
We must pay for the water we drink; we must buy the wood we need for fuel.
5 Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest.
5
Driven hard like donkeys or camels, we are tired, but are allowed no rest.
6 We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.
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To get food enough to stay alive, we went begging to Egypt and Assyria.
7 Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities.
7
Our ancestors sinned, but now they are gone, and we are suffering for their sins.
8 Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand.
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Our rulers are no better than slaves, and no one can save us from their power.
9 We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness.
9
Murderers roam through the countryside; we risk our lives when we look for food.
10 Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.
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Hunger has made us burn with fever until our skin is as hot as an oven.
11 They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.
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Our wives have been raped on Mount Zion itself; in every Judean village our daughters have been forced to submit.
12 Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured.
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Our leaders have been taken and hanged; our elders are shown no respect.
13 They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.
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Our young men are forced to grind grain like slaves; boys go staggering under heavy loads of wood.
14 The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick.
14
The old people no longer sit at the city gate, and the young people no longer make music.
15 The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.
15
Happiness has gone out of our lives; grief has taken the place of our dances.
16 The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!
16
Nothing is left of all we were proud of. We sinned, and now we are doomed.
17 For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.
17
We are sick at our very hearts and can hardly see through our tears,
18 Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.
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because Mount Zion lies lonely and deserted, and wild jackals prowl through its ruins.
19 Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.
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But you, O Lord, are king forever and will rule to the end of time.
20 Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?
20
Why have you abandoned us so long? Will you ever remember us again?
21 Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.
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Bring us back to you, Lord! Bring us back! Restore our ancient glory.
22 But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.
22
Or have you rejected us forever? Is there no limit to your anger?
The King James Version is in the public domain.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.