Psalm 137:3-9

3 Y los que allí nos habían llevado cautivos nos pedían que cantásemos, Y los que nos habían desolado nos pedían alegría, diciendo:

4 Cantadnos algunos de los himnos de Sión. ¿Cómo cantaremos canción de Jehová En tierra de extraños?

5 Si me olvidare de ti, oh Jerusalem, Mi diestra sea olvidada.

6 Mi lengua se pegue á mi paladar, Si de ti no me acordare; Si no ensalzare á Jerusalem Como preferente asunto de mi alegría.

7 Acuérdate, oh Jehová, de los hijos de Edom En el día de Jerusalem; Quienes decían: Arrasadla, arrasadla Hasta los cimientos.

8 Hija de Babilonia destruída, Bienaventurado el que te diere el pago De lo que tú nos hiciste.

9 Bienaventurado el que tomará y estrellará tus niños Contra las piedras.

Psalm 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.