---
title: "Psalm 136 (137) – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/psalms/136/
description: "Psalm 136 (Psalm 137 in Hebrew numbering) in the CPDV, with the Latin Vulgate. Super flumina. The lamentation of the people of God in their captivity in…"
---

# Psalm 136 (137)

Psalm 136 in the Vulgate numbering Bless follows is Psalm 137 in Hebrew numbering (the NABRE, RSV and KJV). Here are all 9 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> Super flumina. The lamentation of the people of God in their captivity in Babylon. A psalm of David, for Jeremias. For the time of Jeremias, and the captivity of Babylon.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Psalm 136 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. A Psalm of David: to Jeremiah. Above the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept, while we remembered Zion.
2. By the willow trees, in their midst, we hung up our instruments.
3. For, in that place, those who led us into captivity questioned us about the words of the songs. And those who carried us away said: “Sing us a hymn from the songs of Zion.”
4. How can we sing a song of the Lord in a foreign land?
5. If I ever forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand be forgotten.
6. May my tongue adhere to my jaws, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem first, as the beginning of my joy.
7. O Lord, call to mind the sons of Edom, in the day of Jerusalem, who say: “Despoil it, despoil it, even to its foundation.”
8. O daughter of Babylon, have pity. Blessed is he who will repay you with your payment, which you have paid to us.
9. Blessed is he who will take hold of your little ones and dash them against the rock.

## Psalm 136 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Psalmus David, Jeremiæ. Super flumina Babylonis illic sedimus et flevimus, cum recordaremur Sion.
2. In salicibus in medio ejus suspendimus organa nostra:
3. quia illic interrogaverunt nos, qui captivos duxerunt nos, verba cantionum; et qui abduxerunt nos: Hymnum cantate nobis de canticis Sion.
4. Quomodo cantabimus canticum Domini in terra aliena?
5. Si oblitus fuero tui, Jerusalem, oblivioni detur dextera mea.
6. Adhæreat lingua mea faucibus meis, si non meminero tui; si non proposuero Jerusalem in principio lætitiæ meæ.
7. Memor esto, Domine, filiorum Edom, in die Jerusalem: qui dicunt: Exinanite, exinanite usque ad fundamentum in ea.
8. Filia Babylonis misera! beatus qui retribuet tibi retributionem tuam quam retribuisti nobis.
9. Beatus qui tenebit, et allidet parvulos tuos ad petram.

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 9: In the spiritual sense, we dash the little ones of Babylon against the rock, when we mortify our passions, and stifle the first motions of them, by a speedy recourse to the rock which is Christ.

## Read at Mass (US)

- Sun, Mar 7, 2027: Fourth Sunday of Lent — Responsorial Psalm, Psalm 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6
- Fri, Jun 30, 2028 (computed): Friday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time — Responsorial Psalm, Psalm 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6

Citations as published in the USCCB liturgical calendar (principal Mass, first option). Dates after May 31, 2027 are computed by Bless from the US Lectionary cycle — confirm with your parish. Mass citations number the Psalms in the Hebrew way.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).