King James Version KJV
Revised Standard Version RSV
1 Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.
1
Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us; behold, and see our disgrace!
2 Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.
2
Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to aliens.
3 We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.
3
We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are like widows.
4 We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.
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We must pay for the water we drink, the wood we get must be bought.
5 Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest.
5
With a yoke on our necks we are hard driven; we are weary, we are given no rest.
6 We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.
6
We have given the hand to Egypt, and to Assyria, to get bread enough.
7 Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities.
7
Our fathers sinned, and are no more; and we bear their iniquities.
8 Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand.
8
Slaves rule over us; there is none to deliver us from their hand.
9 We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness.
9
We get our bread at the peril of our lives, because of the sword in the wilderness.
10 Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.
10
Our skin is hot as an oven with the burning heat of famine.
11 They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.
11
Women are ravished in Zion, virgins in the towns of Judah.
12 Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured.
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Princes are hung up by their hands; no respect is shown to the elders.
13 They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.
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Young men are compelled to grind at the mill; and boys stagger under loads of wood.
14 The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick.
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The old men have quit the city gate, the young men their music.
15 The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.
15
The joy of our hearts has ceased; our dancing has been turned to mourning.
16 The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!
16
The crown has fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned!
17 For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.
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For this our heart has become sick, for these things our eyes have grown dim,
18 Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.
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for Mount Zion which lies desolate; jackals prowl over it.
19 Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.
19
But thou, O LORD, dost reign for ever; thy throne endures to all generations.
20 Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?
20
Why dost thou forget us for ever, why dost thou so long forsake us?
21 Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.
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Restore us to thyself, O LORD, that we may be restored! Renew our days as of old!
22 But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.
22
Or hast thou utterly rejected us? Art thou exceedingly angry with us?
The King James Version is in the public domain.
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.