Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹ Beside the rivers^[a] of Babylon,
there we sat, and, yes, we wept as we remembered Zion.
² There we hung up our lyres on the willows,
³ because there our captors asked us for words of a song,
and our tormentors asked for a happy song:
“Sing for us one of the songs of Zion!”

⁴ How can we sing a song of the Lord on foreign soil?
⁵ If I forget you, Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget how to play music.^[b]
6 May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you,
if I do not exalt Jerusalem above my highest joy.

⁷ Remember the day of Jerusalem, O Lord,
against the descendants of Edom^[c] who said,
“Tear it down, tear it down to its foundations!”
⁸ Daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed,
how blessed is the one who repays you
    with the same deeds you did against us.
⁹ How blessed is the one who seizes your children
and dashes them against the cliff.

¹³ What testimony can I give on your behalf?
    What can I compare to you, daughter of Jerusalem?
    What can I place next to you, so that I may comfort you, virgin daughter of Zion?
    Your wound is as wide as the sea. Who can heal you?
¹⁴ Your prophets saw visions for you, but they were empty and worthless.
    They did not reveal your guilt, in order to turn away your captivity.
    They saw oracles for you that were empty and misleading.
¹⁵ All who passed by clapped their hands over you.
    They hissed and shook their head over the daughter of Jerusalem:
    “Is this the city that was said to be the perfection of beauty,
    the joy of the whole earth?”
¹⁶ All your enemies opened their mouth against you.
    They hissed and gnashed their teeth. They said, “We swallowed her up.
    Yes, this is the day we were waiting for. We found it. We saw it.”
¹⁷ The Lord has done what he planned. He carried out his word,
    which he commanded long ago. He tore down and did not spare.
    He let the enemy rejoice over you. He raised up the horn of your foes.
¹⁸ Their heart cried out to the Lord.
    O wall of the daughter of Zion,
    let your tears flow like a torrent, day and night.
    Do not let yourself become numb. Do not let your eye stop crying.
¹⁹ Get up! Shout out during the night, as the night watches begin!
    Pour out your heart like water before the Lord’s face.
    Lift up your hands to him to pray for the life of your children,
    who are faint with hunger at every street corner.
²⁰ Look, Lord, and see! With whom have you dealt so harshly?
    Should women eat the children they produced,
    the children they played with on their knee?
    Should priest and prophet be killed in the Lord’s holy place?
²¹ In the streets young and old lie dead on the ground.
    My virgins and my best young men have fallen by the sword.
    You killed them on the day of your anger. You slaughtered and did not spare.
²² As you do on a day of assembly, you summoned from every side the things I dread.
    On the day of the Lord’s anger, there was no one who escaped or survived.
    The enemy destroyed the children I played with on my knee and raised.^[a]