Lamentations Chapter 5

The prayer of Jeremiah the Prophet.

English (Douay-Rheims)

1 Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us: consider and behold our reproach.
2 Our inheritance is turned to aliens: our houses to strangers.
3 We are become orphans without a father: our mothers are as widows.
4 We have drunk our water for money: we have bought our wood.
5 We were dragged by the necks, we were weary and no rest was given us.
6 We have given our hand to Egypt, and to the Assyrians, that we might be satisfied with bread.
7 Our fathers have sinned, and are not: and we have borne their iniquities.
8 Servants have ruled over us: there was none to redeem us out of their hand.
9 We fetched our bread at the peril of our lives, because of the sword in the desert.
10 Our skin was burnt as an oven, by reason of the violence of the famine.
11 They oppressed the women in Sion, and the virgins in the cities of Juda.
12 The princes were hanged up by their hand: they did not respect the persons of the ancients.
13 They abused the young men indecently: and the children fell under the wood.
14 The ancients have ceased from the gates: the young men from the choir of the singers.
15 The joy of our heart is ceased, our dancing is turned into mourning.
16 The crown is fallen from our head: woe to us, because we have sinned.
17 Therefore is our heart sorrowful, therefore are our eyes become dim.
18 For mount Sion, because it is destroyed, foxes have walked upon it.
19 But thou, O Lord, shalt remain for ever, thy throne from generation to generation.
20 Why wilt thou forget us for ever? why wilt thou forsake us for a long time?
21 Convert us, O Lord, to thee, and we shall be converted: renew our days, as from the beginning.
22 But thou hast utterly rejected us, thou art exceedingly angry against us.

Old Testament first published 1609 by the English College at Douay
New Testament first published 1582 by the English College at Rheims
Revised and Annotated 1749 by Bishop Richard Challoner
Imprimatur. +James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, September 1, 1899

Latin (Clementine Vulgate)

1 Recordare, Domine, quid acciderit nobis;
intuere et respice opprobrium nostrum.
2 Hæreditas nostra versa est ad alienos,
domus nostræ ad extraneos.
3 Pupilli facti sumus absque patre,
matres nostræ quasi viduæ.
4 Aquam nostram pecunia bibimus;
ligna nostra pretio comparavimus.
5 Cervicibus nostris minabamur,
lassis non dabatur requies.
6 Ægypto dedimus manum et Assyriis,
ut saturaremur pane.
7 Patres nostri peccaverunt, et non sunt:
et nos iniquitates eorum portavimus.
8 Servi dominati sunt nostri:
non fuit qui redimeret de manu eorum.
9 In animabus nostris afferebamus panem nobis,
a facie gladii in deserto.
10 Pellis nostra quasi clibanus exusta est,
a facie tempestatum famis.
11 Mulieres in Sion humiliaverunt,
et virgines in civitatibus Juda.
12 Principes manu suspensi sunt;
facies senum non erubuerunt.
13 Adolescentibus impudice abusi sunt,
et pueri in ligno corruerunt.
14 Senes defecerunt de portis,
juvenes de choro psallentium.
15 Defecit gaudium cordis nostri;
versus est in luctum chorus noster.
16 Cecidit corona capitis nostri:
væ nobis, quia peccavimus!
17 Propterea mœstum factum est cor nostrum;
ideo contenebrati sunt oculi nostri,
18 propter montem Sion quia disperiit;
vulpes ambulaverunt in eo.
19 Tu autem, Domine, in æternum permanebis,
solium tuum in generationem et generationem.
20 Quare in perpetuum oblivisceris nostri,
derelinques nos in longitudine dierum?
21 Converte nos, Domine, ad te, et convertemur;
innova dies nostros, sicut a principio.
22 Sed projiciens repulisti nos:
iratus es contra nos vehementer.

Transcribed as part of the Clementine Vulgate Project
Please notify the original transcriber (little.mouth@soon.com) of any errors in this Latin edition