Psalms 137

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

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat, and we also wept when we remembered Zion.

2 There on the willows we hung our harps,

Upon the willows in her midst had we hung up 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 demanded of us the words of song; and those that mocked us, joy, [saying, ] Sing for us one of the songs of Zion.

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

How should we sing the song of the Lord on the soil of the stranger?

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

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget—.

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 cleave to my palate if I do not remember thee: if I recall not Jerusalem at the head of my 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, O Lord, unto the children of Edom the day of Jerusalem; who said, Raze it, raze it, even to her very foundation.

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

O daughter of Babylon, who art wasted: happy he, that repayeth thee thy recompense for what thou hast done to us.

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

Happy he, that seizeth and dasheth thy babes against the rock.