3. We have become orphans and fatherless; our mothers are like widows.
4. We have had to pay money to drink the water that belongs to us; our [own] wood is sold to us.
5. Our pursuers are upon our necks [like a yoke]; we are weary and are allowed no rest.
6. We have given the hand [as a pledge of fidelity and submission] to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians [merely] to get food to satisfy [our hunger].
7. Our fathers sinned and are no more, and we have borne their iniquities. [Isa. 65:7; Jer. 16:11-12; 31:29; Ezek. 18:2-4.]
8. Servants and slaves rule over us; there is none to deliver us out of their hands. [Neh. 5:15.]
9. We get our bread at the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness [the wild Arabs, who may attack if we venture into the fields to reap our harvests].
10. Our skin glows and is parched as from [the heat of] an oven because of the burning heat of [the fever of] famine.
11. They ravished the women in Zion, the virgins in the cities of Judah.
12. They hung princes by their hands; the persons of elders were not respected.
13. Young men carried millstones, and boys fell [staggering] under [burdens of] wood.
14. The elders have ceased from [congregating at] the city's gate, the young men from their music.
15. Ceased is the joy of our hearts; our dancing has turned into mourning.
16. The crown has fallen from our head [our honor is brought to the dust]! Woe to us, for we have sinned!
17. Because of this our hearts are faint and sick; because of these things our eyes are dim and see darkly.
18. As for Mount Zion, which lies desolate, the jackals prowl over it!