Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

137 When we sat down beside the rivers in Babylon,
    we were very upset.
We thought about Zion city that we had left behind,
    and we wept.^[b]
2 We hung up our harps there
    on the branches of the willow trees.
³ Our enemies asked us to sing songs for them there.
    They laughed at us as their prisoners.
They asked for a song to make them happy.
    They shouted, ‘Sing us a song about Zion!’
⁴ But we are in a foreign land,
    so we cannot sing a song to the Lord.
⁵ Jerusalem, I never want to forget you.
    I would rather lose my right hand!
⁶     I would rather my tongue could no longer move!^[c]
Yes, I will always remember you, Jerusalem.
You are the most important thing that I think about,
    more than anything else that makes me happy.

¹⁶ We weep because of these things.
Tears run down our faces because God is not with us.
Nobody will help us.
We are the children of this city
and we have nothing now.
The enemy has won.’^[a]
17 Zion's people ask for help,
but nobody is their friend.
They are Jacob's children.^[b]
But the Lord has said that he will cause their enemies
to come from every country near them.
Those other people think about Jerusalem as they would think about something dirty.^[c]
18 ‘The Lord is right to punish us.
We have not obeyed him.^[d]
Listen, all people everywhere, and look at us.
We are in very bad trouble.
The enemy has taken away our young women
and our young men to be slaves.’
¹⁹ ‘We shouted to our friends.
They had said that they would help us.
But they did not help us.
Our priests and our leaders died in the city.
They were looking for food to keep themselves alive.
²⁰ Look, Lord, we are in a lot of trouble.
We are very sad.
We are weak deep inside ourselves
because we have done so many bad things.
They are killing our people in the streets.
People are dying in the houses.’^[e]
21 ‘Everybody knows that we are very sad.
Nobody wants to help us.
All our enemies know about our trouble.
They are happy, God, that you caused that trouble.
Please cause trouble for those enemies too, as you promised.
²² You know that they have done many bad things.
Punish them as you have punished us.
You punished us because we did many bad things.
Now we are ashamed and we are very sad.’