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Lament During the Babylonian Exile

137 
By the rivers of Babylon,

there we sat, yes, we wept,

when we remembered Zion.

2 On the willows[a] in her midst,

we hung up our lyres.

3 For there our captors asked of us

words of a song,

and our tormentors[b] asked of us jubilation,

“Sing for us from a song of Zion.”

4 How could we sing the song of Yahweh

in a foreign land?[c]

5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,

let my right hand forget.[d]

6 Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth,

if I do not remember you,

if do not I exalt Jerusalem

above my highest joy.

7 Remember, O Yahweh, against the sons of Edom

the day of Jerusalem,

the ones who said, “Lay it bare! Lay it bare

to its foundation!”

8 O daughter of Babylon, about to be devastated,

happy shall be he who pays back to you

what you paid out to us.[e]

9 Happy shall be he who seizes

and smashes your children

against the rock.

Footnotes

  1. Psalm 137:2 Species of tree uncertain
  2. Psalm 137:3 Only occurring once in the MT, this interpretation is uncertain. The LXX’s “carried us captive” is a guess. If related to the Hebrew root yll it might have the idea of “mockers/yammerers”
  3. Psalm 137:4 Literally “a land of a foreigner”
  4. Psalm 137:5 That is, how to play a musical instrument
  5. Psalm 137:8 Literally “with what you treated us”