Psalm 137
New International Version
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 poplars we hung our harps,
3for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
4How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?
5If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill.
6May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy.
7Remember, Lord, what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell. “Tear it down,” they cried, “tear it down to its foundations!”
8Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is the one who repays you according to what you have done to us.
9Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.
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Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Text unchanged, provided through API.Bible.