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Psalm 137

Lament over the Destruction of Jerusalem

By the rivers of Babylon—
    there we sat down, and there we wept
    when we remembered Zion.(A)
On the willows[a] there
    we hung up our harps.
For there our captors
    asked us for songs,
and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,
    “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”(B)

How could we sing the Lord’s song
    in a foreign land?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
    let my right hand wither!
Let 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.(C)

Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites
    the day of Jerusalem’s fall,
how they said, “Tear it down! Tear it down!
    Down to its foundations!”(D)
O daughter Babylon, you devastator![b]
    Happy shall they be who pay you back
    what you have done to us!(E)
Happy shall they be who take your little ones
    and dash them against the rock!(F)

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Footnotes

  1. 137.2 Or poplars
  2. 137.8 Or you who are devastated