Psalm 137
Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition
Lament over the Destruction of Jerusalem
137 [a]By the waters[b] of Babylon,
there we sat down and wept,
when we remembered Zion.
2 On the willows[c] there
we hung up our lyres.
3 For there our captors
required of us songs,
and our tormentors, mirth, saying,
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
4 How shall we sing the Lord’s song
in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand wither!
6 Let 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!
7 Remember, O Lord, against the E′domites
the day of Jerusalem,
how they said, “Raze it, raze it!
Down to its foundations!”
8 O daughter of Babylon, you devastator![d]
Happy shall he be who requites you
with what you have done to us!
9 Happy shall he be who takes your little ones
and dashes them against the rock!
Footnotes
- 137 This psalm breathes the spirit of sadness and homesickness of the Israelite in exile in Babylon.
- Psalm 137:1 Heb streams
- Psalm 137:2 Or poplars
- Psalm 137:8 Or you who are devastated
The Revised Standard Version of the Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1965, 1966 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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