Psalm 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
   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!^*
   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!