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An den Wassern Babylons. Gebhard Fugel, circa 1920. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Psalm 137

9 verses · Imprecatory psalm

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.

The line breaks below follow the poem's own punctuation.

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.

There on the willows we hung our harps,

for there our captors requested a song; our tormentors demanded songs of joy:“Sing us a song of Zion.”

How can we sing a song of the LORD in a foreign land?

If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand cease to function.

May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not exalt Jerusalem as my greatest joy!

Remember, O LORD, the sons of Edom on the day Jerusalem fell:“Destroy it,” they said, “tear it down to its foundations!”

O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, blessed is he who repays you as you have done to us.

Blessed is he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.

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