How Shall We Sing the LORD's Song?

1By the waters of Babylon,

there we sat down and wept,

when we remembered Zion.

2On the willows137:2 Or poplars there

we hung up our lyres.

3For there our captors

required of us songs,

and our tormentors, mirth, saying,

“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

4How shall we sing the LORD's song

in a foreign land?

5If I forget you, O Jerusalem,

let my right hand forget its skill!

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

if I do not remember you,

if I do not set Jerusalem

above my highest joy!

7Remember, O LORD, against the Edomites

the day of Jerusalem,

how they said, “Lay it bare, lay it bare,

down to its foundations!”

8O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed,

blessed shall he be who repays you

with what you have done to us!

9Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones

and dashes them against the rock!