Common English Bible CEB
New Revised Standard NRS
1 Alongside Babylon's streams, there we sat down, crying because we remembered Zion.
1
By the rivers of Babylon— there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion.
2 We hung our lyres up in the trees there
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On the willows there we hung up our harps.
3 because that's where our captors asked us to sing; our tormentors requested songs of joy: "Sing us a song about Zion!" they said.
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For there our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"
4 But how could we possibly sing the LORD's song on foreign soil?
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How could we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?
5 Jerusalem! If I forget you, let my strong hand wither!
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If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither!
6 Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I don't remember you, if I don't make Jerusalem my greatest joy.
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Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy.
7 LORD, remember what the Edomites did on Jerusalem's dark day: "Rip it down, rip it down! All the way to its foundations!" they yelled.
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Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem's fall, how they said, "Tear it down! Tear it down! Down to its foundations!"
8 Daughter Babylon, you destroyer, a blessing on the one who pays you back the very deed you did to us!
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O daughter Babylon, you devastator! Happy shall they be who pay you back what you have done to us!
9 A blessing on the one who seizes your children and smashes them against the rock!
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Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock!
Copyright © 2011 Common English Bible
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.