Psalms 137

Lament over the Destruction of Jerusalem

¹By the rivers of Babylon—

there we sat down and there we wept

when we remembered Zion.

²On the willows there[#137.2 Or]

we hung up our harps.

³For there our captors

asked us for songs,

and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,

“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

⁴How could we sing the Lord 's song

in a foreign land?

⁵If I forget you, O Jerusalem,

let my right hand wither!

⁶Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth,

if I do not remember you,

if I do not set Jerusalem

above my highest joy.

⁷Remember, O Lord , against the Edomites

the day of Jerusalem's fall,

how they said, “Tear it down! Tear it down!

Down to its foundations!”

⁸O daughter Babylon, you devastator![#137.8 Or]

Happy shall they be who pay you back

what you have done to us!

⁹Happy shall they be who take your little ones

and dash them against the rock!