Psalm 137

English Standard Version

How Shall We Sing the Lord's Song?

137 By the waters of Babylon,
    there we sat down and wept,
    when we remembered Zion.
²On the willows^[a] there
    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!”

⁴^(A)How shall we sing the Lord's song
    in a foreign land?
⁵If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
    ^(B)let my right hand forget its skill!
⁶Let my ^(C)tongue stick 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 ^(D)Edomites
    ^(E)the day of Jerusalem,
how they said, ^(F)“Lay it bare, lay it bare,
    down to its foundations!”
⁸O daughter of Babylon, ^(G)doomed to be destroyed,
    blessed shall he be who ^(H)repays you
    with what you have done to us!
⁹Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones
    and ^(I)dashes them against the rock!

Read full chapter

Footnotes

Psalm 137:2 Or poplars

Psalm 144

English Standard Version

My Rock and My Fortress

Of David.

144 Blessed be the Lord, my ^(A)rock,
    ^(B)who trains my hands for war,
    and my fingers for battle;
²he is my ^(C)steadfast love and my ^(D)fortress,
    my ^(E)stronghold and my deliverer,
my ^(F)shield and he in whom I take refuge,
    who ^(G)subdues peoples^[a] under me.

³O Lord, ^(H)what is man that you ^(I)regard him,
or the son of man that you think of him?
⁴^(J)Man is like a breath;
his days are like ^(K)a passing ^(L)shadow.

⁵^(M)Bow your heavens, O Lord, and come down!
    ^(N)Touch the mountains so that they smoke!
⁶^(O)Flash forth the lightning and scatter them;
    ^(P)send out your arrows and rout them!
⁷^(Q)Stretch out your hand from on high;
    ^(R)rescue me and deliver me from the many waters,
    from the hand ^(S)of foreigners,
⁸whose mouths speak ^(T)lies
    and whose right hand is ^(U)a right hand of falsehood.

⁹I will sing ^(V)a new song to you, O God;
    upon ^(W)a ten-stringed harp I will play to you,
¹⁰who gives victory to kings,
    who ^(X)rescues David his servant from the cruel sword.
¹¹Rescue me and deliver me
    from the hand ^(Y)of foreigners,
whose mouths speak ^(Z)lies
    and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.

¹²May our sons in their youth
    be like ^(AA)plants full grown,
our daughters like ^(AB)corner pillars
    cut for the structure of a palace;
¹³^(AC)may our granaries be full,
    ^(AD)providing all kinds of produce;
may our sheep bring forth thousands
    and ten thousands in our fields;
¹⁴may our cattle be heavy with young,
    suffering no mishap or failure in bearing;^[b]
may there be no ^(AE)cry of distress in our streets!
¹⁵^(AF)Blessed are the people to whom such blessings fall!
    ^(AG)Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord!

Footnotes

Psalm 144:2 Many Hebrew manuscripts, Dead Sea Scroll, Jerome, Syriac, Aquila; most Hebrew manuscripts subdues my people
Psalm 144:14 Hebrew with no breaking in or going out