REMEMBER, O Lord, what is fallen on us;
See, and marke how we are
reproached thus,
For unto
strangers our possession
Is turn'd,
our houses unto Aliens gone,
Our mothers are become as
widowes, wee
As Orphans all, and without
father be;
Waters
which are our owne, wee drunke, and pay,
And upon our owne wood a
price they lay.
Our
persecutors on our necks do sit,
They make us travaile, and not intermit,
We stretch our hands
unto
th'Egyptians To get us
bread; and to the
Assyrians.
Our Fathers did these sinnes, and are no more,
But wee do beare the
sinnes they did before.
They are but
servants, which do rule us thus,
Yet from their hands none would
deliver us.
With
danger of our life our bread wee gat;
For in the wildernesses the
sword did wait.
The tempests of
this famine wee liv'd in,
Black as an Oven colour'd had our skinne:
In
Judaes cities they the maids abus'd
By
force, and so women in
Sion us'd.
The Princes with their hands
they hung; no grace
Nor
honour gave they to the Elders face.
Unto the mill our yong men carried are,
And
children fell under the wood they bare.
Elders, the gates; youth did
their songs forbearer
Gone was our
joy; our dancings,
mournings were.
Now is the
crowne falne from our head; and woe
Be
unto us, because we'have
sinned so.
For this our hearts do languish, and
for this
Over our eyes a
cloudy dimnesse is.
Because mount
Sion desolate doth lye,
And foxes there do goe at libertie:
But thou O Lord art ever,
and thy throne
From
generation, to generation.
Why should'st thou
forget us
eternally?
Or leave
us thus long in this misery?
Restore us Lord to thee, that so we may
Returne, and as of old,
renew our day.
For
oughtest thou, O Lord, despise us thus,
And to be utterly enrag'd at
us?
Back