Psalms 137

1 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.

By the waters of Babylon there we sat, and we wept at the thought of Zion.

2 There on the willows we hung our harps,

There on the poplars we hung our harps.

3 for there our captors requested a song; our tormentors demanded songs of joy: “Sing us a song of Zion.”

For there our captors called for a song: our tormentors, rejoicing, saying: ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion.’

4 How can we sing a song of the LORD in a foreign land?

How can we sing the Lord’s song in the foreigner’s land?

5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand cease to function.

If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand wither.

6 May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not exalt Jerusalem as my greatest joy!

May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I am unmindful of you, or don’t set Jerusalem above my chief joy.

7 Remember, O LORD, the sons of Edom on the day Jerusalem fell: “Destroy it,” they said, “tear it down to its foundations!”

Remember the Edomites, Lord, the day of Jerusalem’s fall, when they said, ‘Lay her bare, lay her bare, right down to her very foundation.’

8 O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, blessed is he who repays you as you have done to us.

Babylon, despoiler, happy are those who pay you back for all you have done to us.

9 Blessed is he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.

Happy are they who seize and dash your children against the rocks.