Psalm CXXXVII

In Babylon's Captivity
We [sadly] by their rivers sate;
When Sion we remembred there,
We wept [as men] disconsolate.

On Willows in the midst thereof
We hang'd our [silent] Harps unstrung;
For they who had us Captives made,
[In scorn] requir'd of us a Song.

They that had made our Country wast,
To make sport [of us] talked thus,
Now sing us one of Sion's songs,
[Said they] insulting over us.

How shall we sing God's sacred songs,
Thus [Captives] in a foreign land?

If I Jerusalem forget,
Let [Musick] skill forsake my hand.

Let my tongue dumb cleave to my jaws
If [belov'd] Sion I forget;
And if above my chiefest joy
I do not Sion [always] set.

Remember Edom's Off-spring, Lord,
Who in thy peoples [woful] day,
Cry'd, Rase it, Rase it to the ground,
This [hated] City level lay.

O Babylon, to destruction judg'd,
That [conquering] hand shall honour'd be,
Which just as thou hast used us,
[A just] reward shall give to thee.

That Victor's hand shall honour'd be,
That [fiercely] takes thy little ones;
(Not we, but foes in bloody war)
Will dash them [dead] against [the] stones.