Psalm 137
Young's Literal Translation
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 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!
Young's Literal Translation — Public Domain. Where these translations come from.