Psalm 137:3

3 For there our captors asked of us words of a song, and our tormentors [asked of us] jubilation, "Sing for us from a song of Zion."

Psalm 137:3 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 137:3

For there they that carried us away captive required of us a
song
Or, "words of a song" ^F26. To repeat the words of one of the songs of Zion, as it is afterwards expressed: this the Babylonians did, as the Targum; who were they that carried the Jews into captivity; and this is given as a reason why they hung their harps on willows, and were so sorrowful, because such a request as this was made;

and they that wasted us [required of us] mirth:
the Chaldeans, who plundered them of their substance, and reduced their city and temple to heaps of rubbish, as the word ^F1 used signifies; or who heaped reproaches upon them, as Jarchi: these insisted not only on having the words of a song repeated to them, but that they should be set to some tune and sung in a manner expressing mirth, or would provoke unto it: or "our lamentations", according to Kimchi; that is, the authors of them ^F2, so barbarous were they;

[saying], sing us [one] of the songs of Zion;
which used to be sung in Zion in the temple, called the songs of the temple, ( Amos 8:3 ) ; this demand they made either out of curiosity, that they might know something of the temple songs and music they had heard of; or rather as jeering at and insulting the poor Jews in their miserable and melancholy circumstances; as if they had said, now sing your songs if you can: or in order to make themselves sport and diversion with them, as the Philistines with Samson. The spiritual songs of Zion are the songs of electing, redeeming, calling, pardoning, and justifying grace; which natural men neither understand, nor can learn, but scoff at and despise.

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FOOTNOTES:

F26 (ryv yrbd) "verba cantici", Pagninus, Montanus, Musculus, Piscator, Gejerus, Michaelis; "verba earminis", Cocceius.
F1 (wnyllwt) "qui veluti in acervos nos redegerunt", Tigurine version, Grotius.
F2 Vid. Stockium, p. 447.

Psalm 137:3 In-Context

1 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat, yes, we wept, when we remembered Zion.

2 On [the] willows in her midst, we hung up our lyres.

3 For there our captors asked of us words of a song, and our tormentors [asked of us] jubilation, "Sing for us from a song of Zion."

4 How could we sing the song of Yahweh in {a foreign land}?

5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget.

Footnotes

• [a] Only occurring once in the MT, this interpretation is uncertain. The LXX's "carried us captive" is a guess. If related to the Hebrew root yll it might have the idea of "mockers/yammerers"