Lyrics Page

By The Rivers of Babylon

By Merle Haggard + Willie Nelson

3,295 views Oct 6, 2026 updated Verified editorial review

Song Meaning

Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson's version keeps Psalm 137 almost entirely intact — "by the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yeah we wept, when we remembered Zion" is close to a direct quote of the psalm's opening verse, written by exiles grieving a home they'd been forcibly removed from.

The song doesn't resolve that grief so much as sit inside it: "how shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land" stays a real question, not a rhetorical one answered a verse later. The closing ad-libs — "dark tears of Babylon," "they need their God" — push the lament outward from a specific ancient captivity toward something more general about displacement and longing for home.

Two legendary country voices singing a captivity psalm rather than a gospel hymn is an unusual pairing, but the source text does the work: this is scripture set to music, not a loose paraphrase of it.

Lyrics Verified by Editorial Team

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down

Ye-eah we wept, when we remembered Zion


By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down

Ye-eah we wept, when we remembered Zion


When the wicked

Carried us away in captivity

Required from us a song

Now how shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land


When the wicked

Carried us away in captivity

Requiring of us a song

Now how shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land


Let the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart

Be acceptable in thy sight here tonight


Let the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart

Be acceptable in thy sight here tonight


By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down

Ye-eah we wept, when we remembered Zion


By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down

Ye-eah we wept, when we remembered Zion


By the rivers of Babylon (dark tears of Babylon)

There we sat down (You got to sing a song)

Ye-eah we wept, (Sing a song of love)

When we remembered Zion. (Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah)


By the rivers of Babylon (Rough bits of Babylon)

There we sat down (You hear the people cry)

Ye-eah we wept, (They need their God)

When we remembered Zion. (Ooh, have the power)


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