Psalms 137:9

9 Happy shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!

Psalms 137:9 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 137:9

Happy [shall he be] that taketh and dasheth thy little ones
against the stones.
] That takes the infants from their mothers' breasts, or out of their arms, and dashes out their brains against a "rock", as the word F11 signifies; which, though it may seem a piece of cruelty, was but a just retaliation; the Babylonians having done the same to the Jewish children, and is foretold elsewhere should be done to theirs, ( Isaiah 13:16 ) . Nor is this desired from a spirit of revenge, but for the glory of divine justice, and that such a generation of cruel creatures might be rooted out of the earth; see ( Revelation 2:2 Revelation 2:3 ) . Some allegorically understand this of crushing and mortifying the first motions of sin in the heart; but such a sense seems to have no place here.


FOOTNOTES:

F11 (elo la) "ad petram", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus "ad repem", Cocceius.

Psalms 137:9 In-Context

7 Remember, O LORD, against the E'domites the day of Jerusalem, how they said, "Rase it, rase it! Down to its foundations!"
8 O daughter of Babylon, you devastator! Happy shall he be who requites you with what you have done to us!
9 Happy shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.