Psalm 137:2–4

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?

There on the poplars

we hung our harps,

for there our captors asked us for songs,

our tormentors demanded songs of joy;

they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

How can we sing the songs of the Lord

while in a foreign land?

There we hung up our lyres

on the poplar trees,

for our captors there asked us for songs,

and our tormentors, for rejoicing:

“Sing us one of the songs of Zion.”

How can we sing the Lord’s song

on foreign soil?

We put away our harps,

hanging them on the branches of poplar trees.

For our captors demanded a song from us.

Our tormentors insisted on a joyful hymn:

“Sing us one of those songs of Jerusalem!”

But how can we sing the songs of the Lord

while in a pagan land?

On the willows in her midst,

we hung up our lyres.

For there our captors asked of us

words of a song,

and our tormentors asked of us jubilation,

“Sing for us from a song of Zion.”

How could we sing the song of Yahweh

in a foreign land?

We hanged our harps

Upon the willows in the midst thereof.

For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song;

And they that wasted us required of us mirth,

Saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.

How shall we sing the Lord’s song

In a strange land?