We Wept When We Remembered Zion

¹By the rivers of Babylon,

There we sat and also wept,

When we remembered Zion.

²Upon the willows in the midst of it[#137:2 Or poplars]

We hung our lyres.

³For there our captors asked us about the words of a song,

And our tormentors asked joyfully, saying ,

“Sing for us one of the songs of Zion.”

⁴¶How can we sing a song of Yahweh

In a foreign land?

⁵If I forget you, O Jerusalem,

May my right hand forget her skill .

⁶May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth

If I do not remember you,

If I do not exalt Jerusalem

Above my chief joy.

⁷¶Remember, O Yahweh, against the sons of Edom

The day of Jerusalem,

Who said, “Tear it down! Tear it down

To its very foundation.”

⁸O daughter of Babylon, you devastated one,

How blessed will be the one who repays you

With the recompense with which you have recompensed us.

⁹How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your infants

Against the cliff.