Psalm 137:1-9
137 By the rivers* of Babylon*+—there we sat down.+We also wept when we remembered Zion.+
2 Upon the poplar+ trees in the midst of her*We hung our harps.+
3 For there those holding us captive asked us for the words of a song,+And those mocking* us—for rejoicing:+“SING for us one of the songs of Zion.”+
4 How can we sing the song of Jehovah+Upon foreign ground?*+
5 If I should forget you, O Jerusalem,+Let my right hand be forgetful.
6 Let my tongue stick to my palate,+If I were not to remember you,+If I were not to make Jerusalem ascendAbove my chief cause for rejoicing.+
7 Remember,+ O Jehovah, regarding the sons of Eʹdom+ the day of Jerusalem,+Who were saying: “Lay [it] bare! Lay [it] bare to the foundation within it!”+
8 O daughter of Babylon, who are to be despoiled,+Happy will he be that rewards you+With your own treatment with which you treated us.+
9 Happy will he be that grabs ahold and does dash to pieces+Your children against the crag.
Footnotes
^ Or, “great river,” that is, the Euphrates, if pl. to denote grandeur.
^ “Babylon,” LXXVg; MTSy, “Babel.”
^ Or, “it,” fem., referring to “Babylon.”
^ “Mocking.” The meaning of the Heb. word is uncertain.
^ Lit., “ground of a foreign (country).”
