Psalms 137

1 When we sat down by the rivers of Babylon we wept as we remembered Zion.

By the rivers of Babylon, there, we sat down, yea we wept—when we remembered Zion:

2 We hung up our harps on the willow trees.

Upon the willows—in the midst thereof, hanged we our lyres:

3 For those who had taken us captive asked us for a song—our tormentors wanted us to sing a happy song from Jerusalem.

For, there, our captors asked of us words of song, and our plunderers—gladness, —Sing us of the songs of Zion!

4 But how could we sing a song dedicated to the Lord in a pagan land?

How shall we sing the song of Yahweh, on a foreign soil?

5 If I forget Jerusalem, may my right hand forget how to play;

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, Let my right-hand forget:

6 May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I don't remember you—if I don't consider Jerusalem my greatest joy.

Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember thee! if I do not lift up Jerusalem above the head of mine own gladness.

7 Lord, please remember what the people of Edom did on the day Jerusalem fell, the ones who said “Tear it down! Destroy it down to its foundations!”

Remember, O Yahweh, against the sons of Edom, the day of Jerusalem, —how they continued to say—Overthrow! Overthrow! unto the foundation within it.

8 Daughter of Babylon, you will be destroyed! Happy is the one who pays you back, who does to you what you did to us!

O ruined daughter of Babylon, —how happy the man who shall repay thee thy dealing, wherewith thou didst deal with us!

9 Happy is the one who grabs your children and smashes them against the rocks!

How happy the man who shall snatch away and dash thy children against the crag.