| English Standard Version | New Living Translation |
| 1By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. | 1Beside the rivers of Babylon, we sat and wept as we thought of Jerusalem. |
| 2On the willows there we hung up our lyres. | 2We put away our harps, hanging them on the branches of poplar trees. |
| 3For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” | 3For our captors demanded a song from us. Our tormentors insisted on a joyful hymn: “Sing us one of those songs of Jerusalem!” |
| 4How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a foreign land? | 4But how can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a pagan land? |
| 5If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill! | 5If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget how to play the harp. |
| 6Let 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! | 6May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I fail to remember you, if I don’t make Jerusalem my greatest joy. |
| 7Remember, O LORD, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem, how they said, “Lay it bare, lay it bare, down to its foundations!” | 7O LORD, remember what the Edomites did on the day the armies of Babylon captured Jerusalem. “Destroy it!” they yelled. “Level it to the ground!” |
| 8O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed, blessed shall he be who repays you with what you have done to us! | 8O Babylon, you will be destroyed. Happy is the one who pays you back for what you have done to us. |
| 9Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock! | 9Happy is the one who takes your babies and smashes them against the rocks! |
| ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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