THE PRAYER OF JEREMIAS THE PROPHET.

ORATIO JEREMIÆ PROPHETÆ

Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us: consider and behold our reproach.

Bethink thee, Lord, of our ill case; see where we lie humiliated, and seeing take pity!

Recordare, Domine, quid acciderit nobis; intuere et respice opprobrium nostrum.

Our inheritance is turned to aliens: our houses to strangers.

New tenants our lands have, our homes foreign masters;

Hæreditas nostra versa est ad alienos, domus nostræ ad extraneos.

We are become orphans without a father: our mothers are as widows.

orphaned sons of widowed mothers were not more defenceless.

Pupilli facti sumus absque patre, matres nostræ quasi viduæ.

We have drunk our water for money: we have bought our wood.

Ours to buy the very water we drink, pay a price for every stick of fire-wood;

Aquam nostram pecunia bibimus; ligna nostra pretio comparavimus.

We were dragged by the necks, we were weary and no rest was given us.

led hither and thither under the yoke, with no respite given,

Cervicibus nostris minabamur, lassis non dabatur requies.

We have given our hand to Egypt, and to the Assyrians, that we might be satisfied with bread.

we must make our peace with men of Egypt or Assyria, for a belly-full of bread.

Ægypto dedimus manum et Assyriis, ut saturaremur pane.

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

So must we bear the guilt of our fathers, that sinned and are gone!

Patres nostri peccaverunt, et non sunt: et nos iniquitates eorum portavimus.

Servants have ruled over us: there was none to redeem us out of their hand.

Slaves for our masters now, and none to ransom us;

Servi dominati sunt nostri: non fuit qui redimeret de manu eorum.

We fetched our bread at the peril of our lives, because of the sword in the desert.

bread won out in the desert, and at peril of our lives from the sword’s point!

In animabus nostris afferebamus panem nobis, a facie gladii in deserto.

Our skin was burnt as an oven, by reason of the violence of the famine.

What wonder if our skins are burnt dry as an oven, seared by long famine?

Pellis nostra quasi clibanus exusta est, a facie tempestatum famis.

They oppressed the women in Sion, and the virgins in the cities of Juda.

Never a woman in Sion, never a maid in all Juda’s cities, but has met with dishonour;

Mulieres in Sion humiliaverunt, et virgines in civitatibus Juda.

The princes were hanged up by their hand: they did not respect the persons of the ancient.

merciless hands hurry our princes to the gallows; reverence is none for grey hairs.

Principes manu suspensi sunt; facies senum non erubuerunt.

They abused the young men indecently: and the children fell under the wood.

Toiling at the mill, the flower of our youth, or staggering under loads of wood;

Adolescentibus impudice abusi sunt, et pueri in ligno corruerunt.

The ancients have ceased from the gates: the young men from the choir of the singers.

never an old man left to sit at the gate, or a young man to wake the echoes of the harp;

Senes defecerunt de portis, juvenes de choro psallentium.

The joy of our heart is ceased, our dancing is turned into mourning.

gone, all our mirth, all our music drowned in sadness.

Defecit gaudium cordis nostri; versus est in luctum chorus noster.

The crown is fallen from our head woe to us, because we have sinned.

Alas, we are sinners; the wreath has faded from our brows;

Cecidit corona capitis nostri: væ nobis, quia peccavimus!

Therefore is our heart sorrowful, therefore are our eyes become dim,

there are sad hearts everywhere, and dim eyes.

Propterea mœstum factum est cor nostrum; ideo contenebrati sunt oculi nostri,

For mount Sion, because it is destroyed, foxes have walked upon it.

What, does not the hill of Sion lie desolate, ravaged by the foxes?

propter montem Sion quia disperiit; vulpes ambulaverunt in eo.

But thou, O Lord, shalt remain for ever, thy throne from generation to generation.

Lord, thou abidest ever; age after age thy throne endures;

Tu autem, Domine, in æternum permanebis, solium tuum in generationem et generationem.

Why wilt thou forget us for ever? why wilt thou forsake us for a long time?

and wilt thou still be forgetful of us, through the long years leave us forsaken?

Quare in perpetuum oblivisceris nostri, derelinques nos in longitudine dierum?

Convert us, O Lord, to thee, and we shall be converted: renew our days, as from the beginning.

Bring us back to thee, Lord, and let us find our home; bring back to us the days of our youth;

Converte nos, Domine, ad te, et convertemur; innova dies nostros, sicut a principio.

But thou hast utterly rejected us, thou art exceedingly angry with us.

wouldst thou altogether abandon us, shall thy indignation know no measure?

Sed projiciens repulisti nos: iratus es contra nos vehementer.