By the Rivers of Babylon
Psalm 137
1 By the rivers of Babylon,
we sat down and wept,
when we remembered Zion.
2 On the willows there
we hung up our harps.
3 For there our captors demanded songs
and our tormentors asked for joy:
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion.”
4 How can we sing a song of Adonai in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand wither.
6 May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
if I cease to remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem above my chief joy.
7 Remember, Adonai, the children of Edom,
what they said on the day Jerusalem fell:
“Strip her, strip her to her very foundation!”
8 O daughter of Babylon, the devastated one,
happy is the one who repays you
as you have paid us.
9 Happy is the one who seizes your little ones
and dashes them upon the rock.