Salmos 137:3-9

3 Pues nuestros captores nos exigían que cantáramos;
los que nos atormentaban insistían en un himno de alegría:
«¡Cántennos una de esas canciones acerca de Jerusalén!».

4 ¿Pero cómo podemos entonar las canciones del Señor
mientras estamos en una tierra pagana?

5 Si me olvido de ti, oh Jerusalén,
que mi mano derecha se olvide de cómo tocar el arpa.

6 Que la lengua se me pegue al paladar
si dejo de recordarte,
si no hago de Jerusalén mi mayor alegría.

7 Oh Señor
, recuerda lo que hicieron los edomitas
el día en que los ejércitos de Babilonia tomaron a Jerusalén.
«¡Destrúyanla! —gritaron—.
¡Allánenla hasta reducirla a escombros!».

8 Oh Babilonia, serás destruida;
feliz será el que te haga pagar
por lo que nos has hecho.

9 ¡Feliz será el que tome a tus bebés
y los estrelle contra las rocas!

Salmos 137:3-9 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.