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 {Hebrew: cometh for price.}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 {Or, hot}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 {Or, jackels}foxes walk upon it.
Thou, O Jehovah, {Or, sittest as King}abidest for ever;
Thy throne is from generation to generation.
Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever,
And forsake us so long time?
Turn thou us unto thee, O Jehovah, and we shall be turned;
Renew our days as of old.
{Or, Unless thou…and art &c.}But thou hast utterly rejected us;
Thou art very wroth against us.
Querverweise zu Klagelieder 5,5 Klgl 5,5
The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand;They are knit together, they are come up upon my neck; he hath made my strength to {Hebrew: stumble.}fail:The Lord hath delivered me into their hands, {Or, from whom I am not able to rise up}against whom I am not able to stand.
Behold, we are servants this day, and as for the land that thou gavest unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof, behold, we are servants in it.
Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the heavens:They chased us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.
And it yieldeth much increase unto the kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins: also they have power over our bodies, and over our cattle, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress. {[Chapter 10:1 in Hebrew]}
therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies that Jehovah shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.
And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, and there shall be no rest for the sole of thy foot: but Jehovah will give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and pining of soul;
and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear night and day, and shalt have no assurance of thy life.
Thus saith Jehovah to me: Make thee bonds and bars, and put them upon thy neck;
And it shall come to pass, that the nation and the kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith Jehovah, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.
But the nation that shall bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, that nation will I let remain in their own land, saith Jehovah; and they shall till it, and dwell therein.
And I spake to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.
For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they shall serve him: and I have given him the beasts of the field also.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
Now therefore why make ye trial of God, that ye should put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?