By the rivers of Babylon
(Ezekiel 1:1-3)
1
By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.
2
There on the willows (a) we hung our harps,
3
for there our captors requested a song; our tormentors demanded songs of joy: “Sing us a song of Zion.”
4
How can we sing a song of the LORD in a foreign land?
5
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand cease to function.
6
May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not exalt Jerusalem as my greatest joy!
7
Remember, O LORD, the sons of Edom on the day Jerusalem fell: “Destroy it,” they said, “tear it down to its foundations!”
8
O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, blessed is he who repays you as you have done to us.
9
Blessed is he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.
Footnotes