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align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../psalms/136.htm" title="Psalm 136">◄</a> Psalm 137 <a href="../psalms/138.htm" title="Psalm 138">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition</td><td width="1%" valign="top"></td></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><div class="text-html"> <h3><span id="en" class="text">Psalm 137</span></h3><h3><span class="text">Lament over the Destruction of Jerusalem</span></h3><div class="poetry"><p class="line"><span class="text"><span class="versenum">1</span>By the rivers of Babylon—</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">there we sat down and there we wept</span></span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">when we remembered Zion.</span></span><br /><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">2</span>On the willows<span data-fn='#fen' class='footnote' data-link='[<a href="#fen-NRSVCE-18295a" title="See footnote a">a</a>]'>[<a href="#fen" xtitle="See footnote a">a</a>]</span> there</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">we hung up our harps.</span></span><br /><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">3</span>For there our captors</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">asked us for songs,</span></span><br /><span class="text">and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”</span></span></p></div> <div class="poetry top-1"><p class="line"><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">4</span>How could we sing the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span>’s song</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">in a foreign land?</span></span><br /><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">5</span>If I forget you, O Jerusalem,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">let my right hand wither!</span></span><br /><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">6</span>Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">if I do not remember you,</span></span><br /><span class="text">if I do not set Jerusalem</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">above my highest joy.</span></span></p></div> <div class="poetry top-1"><p class="line"><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">7</span>Remember, O <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span>, against the Edomites</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">the day of Jerusalem’s fall,</span></span><br /><span class="text">how they said, “Tear it down! Tear it down!</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">Down to its foundations!”</span></span><br /><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">8</span>O daughter Babylon, you devastator!<span data-fn='#fen' class='footnote' data-link='[<a href="#fen-NRSVCE-18301b" title="See footnote b">b</a>]'>[<a href="#fen" xtitle="See footnote b">b</a>]</span></span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">Happy shall they be who pay you back</span></span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">what you have done to us!</span></span><br /><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">9</span>Happy shall they be who take your little ones</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">and dash them against the rock!</span></span></p></div> <A name="fen"></a><div class="footnotes"><h4>Footnotes</h4><ol><li id="fen"><a hlef="#en" xtitle="Go to Psalm 137:2">Psalm 137:2</a> <span class='footnote-text'>Or <i>poplars</i></span></li><li id="fen"><a hlef="#en" xtitle="Go to Psalm 137:8">Psalm 137:8</a> <span class='footnote-text'>Or <i>you who are devastated</i></span></li></ol></div> </div></div></div></div></div> </div> </div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. 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