Psalms 137

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

By the rivers of Babylon we sat down and wept when we thought about Zion.

2 There on the willows we hung our harps,

On the poplars there we hung our harps.

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

There our captors required songs from us, and those who mocked us required us to be happy, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion.”

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

How could we sing a song about Yahweh in a foreign land?

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

If I ignore the memory of you, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her skill.

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!

Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I think about you no more, if I do not prefer Jerusalem more than my greatest delights.

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

Call to mind, Yahweh, what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell. They said, “Tear it down, tear it down to its foundations.”

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

Daughter of Babylon, soon to be destroyed— may the person be blessed, whoever pays you back for what you have done to us.

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

May the person be blessed, whoever takes and dashes your little ones against a rock.