Psalms 137

1 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, When we remembered Zion.

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

2 We hung our harps on the willows in the midst thereof.

There on the poplars we hung our harps.

3 For there they who carried us away captive required of us a song; They who wasted us required of us mirth: “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

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

4 How shall we sing the LORD'S song In a strange land?

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

5 If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, Let my right hand forget her cunning!

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

6 If I do not remember thee, Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; If I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief 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! against the children of Edom The day of the calamity of Jerusalem! Who said, “Raze it, Raze it 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, thou destroyer! Happy be he who requiteth thee As thou hast dealt with us!

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

9 Happy be he who seizeth thy little ones And dasheth them against the stones!

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