Psalm 137 - English Standard Version (ESV)

How Shall We Sing the Lord's Song?

137 By the waters of Babylon,
there we sat down and wept,
when we remembered Zion.
2 On the willows[a] there
we hung up our lyres.
3 For 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?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
(B)let my right hand forget its skill!
6 Let 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!

7 Remember, 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!”
8 O daughter of Babylon, (G)doomed to be destroyed,
blessed shall he be who (H)repays you
with what you have done to us!
9 Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones
and (I)dashes them against the rock!

Footnotes

  1. Psalm 137:2 Or poplars

Cross references

  1. Psalm 137:4 : [Neh. 2:3]
  2. Psalm 137:5 : [Ps. 76:5]
  3. Psalm 137:6 : Job 29:10; Ezek. 3:26
  4. Psalm 137:7 : Isa. 34:5, 6; Lam. 4:21, 22; Ezek. 35:2; [Amos 1:11, 12]; See Jer. 49:7-22; Ezek. 25:12-14; Obad. 8-14
  5. Psalm 137:7 : See Job 18:20
  6. Psalm 137:7 : Hab. 3:13; Zeph. 2:14
  7. Psalm 137:8 : Isa. 21:9; 47:1-15; Jer. 25:12; 50:1-46; 51:1-64; See Isa. 13:1-22
  8. Psalm 137:8 : Jer. 51:24, 56; [Ps. 28:4]
  9. Psalm 137:9 : 2 Kgs. 8:12; Isa. 13:16; Hos. 10:14; Nah. 3:10

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