Psalms 137

1 By the rivers of Babylon we were seated, weeping at the memory of Zion,

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

2 Hanging our instruments of music on the trees by the waterside.

There on the willows we hung our harps,

3 For there those who had taken us prisoners made request for a song; and those who had taken away all we had gave us orders to be glad, saying, Give us one of the songs of Zion.

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

4 How may we give the Lord's song in a strange land?

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

5 If I keep not your memory, O Jerusalem, let not my right hand keep the memory of its art.

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

6 If I let you go out of my thoughts, and if I do not put Jerusalem before my greatest joy, let my tongue be fixed to the roof of my mouth.

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!

7 O Lord, keep in mind against the children of Edom the day of Jerusalem; how they said, Let it be uncovered, uncovered even to its base.

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

8 O daughter of Babylon, whose fate is destruction; happy is the man who does to you what you have done to us.

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

9 Happy is the man who takes your little ones, crushing them against the rocks.

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