By the Rivers of Babylon

By Brent Dowe and Trevor McNaughton (words adapted from Psalm 137 in The Bible)
Original recording by The Melodians
Rise Up Singing chapter: Freedom, p.63

D - - - / A - D - / - - G D / - - A D
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down
And there we wept when we remember(ed) Zion
*There the wicked* carry us away captivity, require of us a song
How can we sing *King Alfa's* song in a strange land?

Alt: *The Babylonians* carry us away captivity, require of us a song
How can we sing *the Lord's* song in a strange land?

Bridge: D A D A / D A D -
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in thy sight *over I*

Alt: Be acceptable in thy sight *here tonight*

This is from Psalm 137, which in the Complete Jewish Bible, goes like this:
1 By the rivers of Bavel we sat down and wept as we remembered Tziyon. 2 We had hung up our lyres on the willows that were there, 3 when those who had taken us captive asked us to sing them a song; our tormentors demanded joy from us -"Sing us one of the songs from Tziyon!" 4 How can we sing a song about ADONAI here on foreign soil?