Psalms 137 YLT
Summary: One of the Psalter's most emotionally raw psalms, an exiles' lament opening "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion" (v. 1), harps hung silent on the willows while captors mockingly demand "one of the songs of Zion" (v. 3). The exiles refuse, vowing never to forget Jerusalem — "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning" (v. 5) — and the psalm's tone darkens into a harsh imprecation against Edom and Babylon for their role in Jerusalem's fall. It closes with a shocking curse on Babylon's children (v. 8-9), among the starkest expressions of exile-era grief and rage found anywhere in scripture.
1By rivers of Babylon--There we did sit, Yea, we wept when we remembered Zion.
2On willows in its midst we hung our harps.
3For there our captors asked us the words of a song, And our spoilers--joy: `Sing ye to us of a song of Zion.'
4How do we sing the song of Jehovah, On the land of a stranger?
5If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, my right hand forgetteth!
6My tongue doth cleave to my palate, If I do not remember thee, If I do not exalt Jerusalem above my chief joy.
7Remember, Jehovah, for the sons of Edom, The day of Jerusalem, Those saying, `Rase, rase to its foundation!'
8O daughter of Babylon, O destroyed one, O the happiness of him who repayeth to thee thy deed, That thou hast done to us.
9O the happiness of him who doth seize, And hath dashed thy sucklings on the rock!
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