Psalms 137:2-9

2 We hung our lyres on willow trees.

3 It was there that those who had captured us demanded that we sing. Those who guarded us wanted us to entertain them. [They said,] "Sing a song from Zion for us!"

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

5 If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget [how to play the lyre].

6 Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I don't remember you, if I don't consider Jerusalem my highest joy.

7 O LORD, remember the people of Edom. Remember what they did the day Jerusalem [was captured]. They said, "Tear it down! Tear it down to its foundation."

8 You destructive people of Babylon, blessed is the one who pays you back with the same treatment you gave us.

9 Blessed is the one who grabs your little children and smashes them against a rock.

Psalms 137:2-9 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.