USB ~ Psalms 137

Sorrow and Hope in Exile

1 By the rivers of Babylon there we sat weeping when we remembered Zion. a

2 On the poplars in its midst we hung up our harps. b

3 For there our captors asked us for the words of a song; Our tormentors, for joy: “Sing for us a song of Zion!”

4 But how could we sing a song of the LORD in a foreign land?

5 If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand forget. c

6 May my tongue stick to my palate if I do not remember you, If I do not exalt Jerusalem beyond all my delights.

III

7 Remember, LORD, against Edom that day at Jerusalem. They said: “Level it, level it down to its foundations!” d

8 Desolate Daughter Babylon, you shall be destroyed, blessed the one who pays you back what you have done us! e

9 † Blessed the one who seizes your children and smashes them against the rock. f * Psalm 137 A singer refuses to sing the people’s sacred songs in an alien land despite demands from Babylonian captors (Ps 137:1-4). The singer swears an oath by what is most dear to a musician—hands and tongue—to exalt Jerusalem always (Ps 137:5-6). The Psalm ends with a prayer that the old enemies of Jerusalem, Edom and Babylon, be destroyed (Ps 137:7-9).

Footnotes

†. 137:9 Blessed the one who seizes your children and smashes them against the rock: the children represent the future generations, and so must be destroyed if the enemy is truly to be eradicated.

137:1 Ez 3:15; Lam 3:48.
137:2 Is 24:8; Lam 5:14.
137:5 Jer 51:50.
137:7 Jer 49:7; Lam 4:21-22; Ez 25:12-14.
137:8 Is 47:1-3; Jer 50-51.
137:9 Hos 14:1.