By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. 1
There on the poplars we hung our harps, 2
for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!" 3
How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land? 4
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill . 5
May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy. 6
Remember, O LORD, what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell. "Tear it down," they cried, "tear it down to its foundations!" 7
O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us- 8
he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks. 9