By the waters of Babylon,
        there we sat down and wept,
        when we remembered Zion.
    On the willows there
        we hung up our lyres.
    For there our captors
        required of us songs,
    and our tormentors, mirth, saying,
        “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”


    How shall we sing the LORD's song
        in a foreign land?
    If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
        let my right hand forget its skill!
    Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth,
        if I do not remember you,
    if I do not set Jerusalem
        above my highest joy!


    Remember, O LORD, against the Edomites
        the day of Jerusalem,
    how they said, “Lay it bare, lay it bare,
        down to its foundations!”
    O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed,
        blessed shall he be who repays you
        with what you have done to us!
    Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones
        and dashes them against the rock!

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001
by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.