1 1For David, a Psalm of Jeremias.
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat; and wept when we remembered Sion. 2 We hung our 2harps on the willows in the midst of it. 3 For there they that had taken us captive asked of us the words of a song; and they that had carried us away asked a hymn, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Sion.
4 How should we sing the Lord's song 3in a strange land? 5 If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill. 6 May my tongue cleave to my throat, if I do not remember thee; if I do not prefer Jerusalem as the chief of my joy.
7 Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, 4rase it, even to its foundations. 8 Wretched daughter of Babylon! blessed shall he be who shall reward thee as thou hast rewarded us. 9 Blessed shall he be who shall seize and dash thine infants against the rock.
About this text. This is Sir Lancelot Brenton’s 1851 translation of the Septuagint — the Greek Old Testament the Orthodox Church reads, rather than the Hebrew text behind most English Bibles. It is in the public domain. Words in italics are ones Brenton supplied that the Greek does not have; he marked them so that a reader could tell the difference, and they are kept that way here. The numbered notes are his own. Its English is Victorian, and does not match the modern English of the New Testament pages on this site.
On the numbering. The Psalms are numbered here as the Septuagint numbers them, which is how Orthodox service books cite them. From Psalm 10 onward that is one behind a Hebrew-numbered Bible: Psalm 50 here is the Psalm 51 of most English Bibles. The Septuagint also carries a hundred and fifty-first Psalm, which those Bibles do not.