There we sat down, and wept, by streams

1. There we sat down, and wept, by streams,
Which glide by Babel's walls;
While Sion's melancholy themes,
Our mournful mind recalls.
2. Our harps, which used their part to bear,
When Sion's songs we sung,
On willow trees, that flourished there,
As useless now we hung.

3. Stern lords who did us captive bring,
Insulted thus our wrongs;
"Come, take your harps, and cheerful sing
"Us, one of Sion's songs."
4. How can we, Lord, thy wongs repeat,
To aliens, in strange land?
5. If thee, Jerusalem, I forget;
Her skill may my right hand.

6. My tongue cleave to my roof; If I,
Of thee, forgetful prove;
Or ever entertain a joy,
Jerusalem above.
7. Remember, Lord, how Edom's sons,
In Salem's woeful day,
Cried, "Raze it, raze the lowest stones,
And with the ground it lay."

8. O daughter of proud Babylon!
Whom we are doomed to see;
Happy's the man, the wrongs thou'st done
To us, returns on thee.
9. Blessed man! who, at the high command,
Shall take thy little ones.
As thou didst ours, in cruel hands,
And dash against the stones.

A New Version of the Psalms of David, 1752