The Babylonian Exile

The anger of Jehovah hath scattered them; he will no more regard them: They respected not the persons of the priests, they favored not the elders.

Our eyes do yet fail in looking for our vain help: In our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save.

They hunt our steps, so that we cannot go in our streets: Our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.

Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the heavens: They chased us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.

The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of Jehovah, was taken in their pits; Of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.

Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz: The cup shall pass through unto thee also; thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked.

The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry thee away into captivity: He will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will uncover thy sins.

Remember, O Jehovah, what is come upon us: Behold, and see our reproach.

Our inheritance is turned unto strangers, Our houses unto aliens.

We are orphans and fatherless; Our mothers are as widows.

We have drunken our water for money; Our wood is sold unto us.

Our pursuers are upon our necks: We are weary, and have no rest.

We have given the hand to the Egyptians, And to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.

Our fathers sinned, and are not; And we have borne their iniquities.

Servants rule over us: There is none to deliver us out of their hand.

We get our bread at the peril of our lives, Because of the sword of the wilderness.

Our skin is black like an oven, Because of the burning heat of famine.

They ravished the women in Zion, The virgins in the cities of Judah.

Princes were hanged up by their hand: The faces of elders were not honored.

The young men bare the mill; And the children stumbled under the wood.

The elders have ceased from the gate, The young men from their music.

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

The crown is fallen from our head: Woe unto us! for we have sinned.

For this our heart is faint; For these things our eyes are dim;

For the mountain of Zion, which is desolate: The foxes walk upon it.