LAMENT OF THE EXILES

1 By the rivers of Babylon—

there we sat down and wept

when we remembered Zion.s

2 There we hung up our lyres

on the poplar trees,t

3 for our captors there asked us for songs,

and our tormentors, for rejoicing:

“Sing us one of the songs of Zion.”u

4 How can we sing the Lord’s song

on foreign soil?v

5 If I forget you, Jerusalem,

may my right hand forget its skill.w

6 May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth

if I do not remember you,

if I do not exalt Jerusalem as my greatest joy!x

7 Remember, Lord, what the Edomites said

that dayA at Jerusalem:

“Destroy it! Destroy it

down to its foundations!”y

8 Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction,

happy is the one who pays you back

what you have done to us.z

9 Happy is he who takes your little ones

and dashes them against the rocks.aa