Psalm 137:1-9
Berean Standard Bible
Chapter overview
Psalm 137 preserves exiles' grief, cultural pressure, fierce memory, and unresolved anger beside Babylonian rivers. Silenced harps embody refusal to turn sacred song into entertainment while Jerusalem lies lost and unforgotten.
ExileZionGriefMemory
1By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.
2There on the willows we hung our harps,
3for there our captors requested a song; our tormentors demanded songs of joy: “Sing us a song of Zion.”
4How can we sing a song of the LORD in a foreign land?
5If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand cease to function.
6May 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!
7Remember, O LORD, the sons of Edom on the day Jerusalem fell: “Destroy it,” they said, “tear it down to its foundations!”
8O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, blessed is he who repays you as you have done to us.
9Blessed is he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.
Berean Standard Bible — Public Domain. Where these translations come from.