Psalm 137:1-6

1 By the rivers of Bavel, there we sat down. Yes, we wept, when we remembered Tziyon.

2 On the willows in the midst of it, We hung up our harps.

3 For there, those who led us captive asked us for songs. Those who tormented us demanded songs of joy: "Sing us one of the songs of Tziyon!"

4 How can we sing the LORD's song in a foreign land?

5 If I forget you, Yerushalayim, Let my right hand forget its skill.

6 Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, If I don't remember you; If I don't prefer Yerushalayim above my chief joy.

Psalm 137:1-6 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 137

The occasion of this psalm was the captivity of the Jews in Babylon, and the treatment they met with there; either as foreseen, or as now endured. Aben Ezra ascribes this psalm to David; and so the Syriac version, which calls it,

``a psalm of David; the words of the saints, who were carried captive into Babylon.''

The Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Ethiopic versions, make it to be David's, and yet add the name of Jeremiah; and the Arabic version calls it David's, concerning Jeremiah: but, as Theodoret observes, Jeremiah was not carried into Babylon, but, after some short stay in or near Jerusalem, was forced away into Egypt; and could neither be the writer nor subject of this psalm: and though it might be written by David under a spirit of prophecy; who thereby might foresee and foretell the Babylonish captivity, and what the Jews would suffer in it; as the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah did, many years before it came to pass; yet it seems rather to have been written by one of the captivity, either while in it, or immediately after it.