Psalm 137
The full text of Psalm 137 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
(No superscription in the Masoretic Text.)
1 By the waters of Babylon,
there we sat down and wept,
when we remembered Zion.
2 On the willows there
we hung up our lyres.
3 For there our captors
required of us songs,
and our tormentors, mirth, saying,
"Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"
4 How shall we sing the LORD's song
in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget its skill!
6 Let 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!
7 Remember, O LORD, against the Edomites
the day of Jerusalem,
how they said, "Lay it bare, lay it bare,
down to its foundations!"
8 O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed,
blessed shall he be who repays you
with what you have done to us!
9 Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones
and dashes them against the rock!
Translation notes (2)
- Psalm 137:7a Edom, Judah's neighbor and kinsman through Esau, is remembered for aiding or applauding Babylon's destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC, a complicity also denounced in Obadiah 10-14, Lamentations 4:21-22, and Ezekiel 25:12. The doubled Hebrew imperative aru, 'lay bare', voices their cry to raze the city to its foundations.
- Psalm 137:9a The Hebrew 'ashrei, 'blessed' or 'happy', opens both this verse and the preceding one, framing the imprecation as strict retribution: Babylon is to suffer what it inflicted. The killing of infants was a documented atrocity of ancient Near Eastern siege warfare (2 Kings 8:12; Hosea 13:16), and Isaiah 13:16 announces this same fate for Babylon. The psalm voices lament and appeal, not a command to act.
About this translation
You are reading the Trinity Bible Version (TBV) — an original 2026 translation made straight from the Hebrew, in clear modern English, exclusive to Trinity Bible. Every chapter of every book is free to read online. For the study edition — with Hebrew and Greek on every verse and the full translation notes — open Psalms in the Trinity Bible app.
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