Psalms 137:1

Grief Loneliness The stranger and outcast Discouragement and depression

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.

² We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.

³ For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.

Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.

Compare

BSB: By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.
KJV: By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
WEB: By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yes, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
ASV: By the rivers of Babylon, There we sat down, yea, we wept, When we remembered Zion.
DARBY: By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down; yea, we wept when we remembered Zion.
BLB: By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and we wept in our remembering Zion.

ÅB: Ved Babylons elver, der satt vi og gråt når vi kom Sion i hu.
OTB: Ved Babylons elver,
Der satt vi og gråt,
Da vi mintes Sion.
B1930: Ved Babylons elver, der satt vi og gråt når vi kom Sion i hu.

Study notes (Tyndale)

Original text and word study

Cross references

Ezekiel 1:1
Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
Read in context
Ezekiel 3:15
Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel-abib, that dwelt by the river of Chebar, and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days.
Read in context
Lamentations 2:10–11
The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.
Read in context
Lamentations 3:48
Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Read in context
Lamentations 2:18
Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease.
Read in context
Ezekiel 1:3
The word of the LORD came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the LORD was there upon him.
Read in context
Psalms 42:4
When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday.
Read in context
Nehemiah 2:3
And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire?
Read in context