Previous Chapter Full Page Full Page Next Chapter

Psalm 137 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

How Shall We Sing the Lord’s Song?

Psa 137:1By the waters of Babylon,
there we sat down and wept,
when we remembered Zion.
Psa 137:2On the willows[fn] there
we hung up our lyres.
Psa 137:3For there our captors
required of us songs,
and our tormentors, mirth, saying,
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
Psa 137:4How shall we sing the LORD’s song
in a foreign land?
Psa 137:5If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget its skill!
Psa 137:6Let 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!
Psa 137:7Remember, O LORD, against the Edomites
the day of Jerusalem,
how they said, “Lay it bare, lay it bare,
down to its foundations!”
Psa 137:8O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed,
blessed shall he be who repays you
with what you have done to us!
Psa 137:9Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones
and dashes them against the rock!
ESV Footnotes
Or poplars
Translation Copyright Logo

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016 by Crossway Books and Bibles, a Publishing Ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

See detailed copyright information.

For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.