¹By the waters of Babylon,[#137.1 Heb]

there we sat down and wept,

when we remembered Zion.

²On the willows there[#137.2 Or]

we hung up our lyres.

³For there our captors

required of us songs,

and our tormentors, mirth, saying,

“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

⁴How shall we sing the Lord 's song

in a foreign land?

⁵If I forget you, O Jerusalem,

let my right hand wither!

⁶Let my tongue cleave 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,

how they said, “Raze it, raze it!

Down to its foundations!”

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

Happy shall he be who requites you

with what you have done to us!

⁹Happy shall he be who takes your little ones

and dashes them against the rock!