Psalm 137

How Shall We Sing the Lord ’s Song?

¹By the waters of Babylon,

there we sat down and wept,

when we remembered Zion.

²On the willows there[#137:2 Or poplars]

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[#Neh. 2:3]

in a foreign land?

⁵If I forget you, O Jerusalem,

let my right hand forget its skill!

⁶Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth,[#Job 29:10; Ezek. 3:26]

if I do not remember you,

if I do not set Jerusalem

above my highest joy!

⁷Remember, O Lord , against the Edomites[#Isa. 34:5, 6; Lam. 4:21, 22; Ezek. 35:2; Amos 1:11, 12]

the day of Jerusalem,

how they said, “Lay it bare, lay it bare,

down to its foundations!”

⁸O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed,[#Isa. 21:9; 47:1-15; Jer. 25:12; 50:1-46; 51:1-64; Isa. 13:1-22]

blessed shall he be who repays you

with what you have done to us!

⁹Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones

and dashes them against the rock!