Psalm 137:9

9 Happy are those who grab your babies and smash them against the rocks.

Psalm 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.

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FOOTNOTES:

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

Psalm 137:9 In-Context

7 Lord, remember what the people of Edom did on the day Jerusalem fell. "Tear it down!" they cried. "Tear it down to the ground!"

8 People of Babylon, you are sentenced to be destroyed. Happy are those who pay you back for what you have done to us.

9 Happy are those who grab your babies and smash them against the rocks.