Psalm 137:4

Lament During The Babylonian Exile

³ for our captors there asked us for songs,
and our tormentors, for rejoicing:
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion.” ⁴ How can we sing the Lord’s song
on foreign soil?
⁵ If I forget you, Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget its skill.

To the Lord

Jehovah

Ecclesiastes 3:4

a time to weep and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn and a time to dance;

Isaiah 22:12

On that day the Lord God of Hosts
called for weeping, for wailing, for shaven heads,
and for the wearing of sackcloth.

Isaiah 49:21

Then you will say within yourself,
‘Who fathered these for me?
I was deprived of my children and unable to conceive,
exiled and wandering—
but who brought them up?
See, I was left by myself—
but these, where did they come from?’”

Lamentations 5:14-15

The elders have left the city gate,
the young men, their music.

Hosea 9:4

They will not pour out
their wine offerings to the Lord,
and their sacrifices will not please Him.
Their food will be like the bread of mourners;
all who eat it become defiled.
For their bread will be for their appetites alone;
it will not enter the house of the Lord.

Amos 8:3

In that day the temple songs will become wailing”—this is the Lord God’s declaration. “Many dead bodies, thrown everywhere! Silence!”