Psalms 137

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

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

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

There on the willows we hung our harps,

3 For, there, our captors asked of us words of song, and our plunderers—gladness, —Sing us 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 shall we sing the song of Yahweh, on a foreign soil?

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

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

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

6 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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