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A
Lament for Jerusalem
Authorship of the Psalms is traditionally ascribed to King David, but Psalm 137, reproduced here, was obviously written at a much later date.
No one can know precisely when it was written, but the last paragraph may indicate that it was intended not only as a lament for Jerusalem before its destruction by Babylon, but also as a paean to the Persians, who conquered the hated Babylonians in 538 BCE and soon afterwards permitted the exiles to return to Judea
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By the rivers of Babylon
there we sat,
sat and wept,
as we thought of Zion.
There on the poplars
we hung our lyres,
for our captors asked us there for songs,
our tormentors, for amusement,
"Sing us one of the songs of Zion."
How can we sing a song of the
Lord
on alien soil?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand wither,
let my tongue stick to my palate
if I cease to think of you,
if
I do not keep Jerusalem in memory
even
at my happiest hour.
Remember, O Lord, against the
Edomites
the day of Jerusalem's fall
how they cried, "Strip her, strip her
to her very foundations!"
Fair Babylon, you predator,
a blessing on him who repays you in kind
what you have inflicted on us
a blessing on him who seizes your babies
and dashes them against the rocks!
an
and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.
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