Psalm 137:5

5 If I forget thee, Jerusalem; my right hand be given to forgetting. (Yea, if I forget thee, Jerusalem; may my right hand forget how to play my harp/may my right hand wither away.)

Psalm 137:5 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 137:5

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem
This was said by one or everyone of the Levites; or singers, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi; or by the congregation of Israel, as Jarchi; by one of them, in the name of the rest; or by the composer of the psalm. The Targum is,

``the voice of the Spirit of God answered and said, "if I forget"''

that is, to weep over the calamities of Jerusalem; which might be thought, if the songs of Zion were sung; or to pray for the restoration of her prosperity and peace; as the church of Christ may be said to be forgotten, when men forget to mourn over its breaches, and show no concern for the reparation of them; or at the death of principal persons, which they lay not to heart; or at the great decay of religion in those that survive; or at the sins of professors, and their disregard to the word and ordinances: also when they forget to pray for her happiness in general; for the good of her members in particular; and especially for her ministers, that they may have assistance and success; and for a blessing on the word and ordinances, and for the conversion of sinners; and when they forget the worship of the Lord in it, and forsake the assembling of themselves together;

let my right hand forget [her cunning];
her skill in music, particularly in playing on the harp; see ( 1 Samuel 16:16 1 Samuel 16:18 ) ; the harp was held in the left hand, and struck with the right; and that more softly or hardly, as the note required, in which was the skill or cunning of using it. Or let this befall me, should I so far forget Jerusalem as to strike the harp to one of the songs of Zion in a strange land: or let it forget any of its works; let it be disabled from working at all; let it be dry and withered, which, Aben Ezra says, is the sense of the word according to some; and Schultens ^F4, from the use of it in Arabic, renders it, let it be "disjointed", or the nerve loosened; see ( Job 31:22 ) . Or the sense is, let everything that is as dear as my right hand he taken from me: or, as it may be rendered, "my right hand [is] forgotten" ^F5; that is, should I forget Jerusalem, it would; for that is as my right hand; so Arama. Some choose to translate the words thus, "may thou (O God) forget my right hand" ^F6; that is, to be at my right hand; to be a present help to me in time of need; to hold me by it, and to be the shade of it.

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FOOTNOTES:

F4 Animadv. Philol. p. 181.
F5 (ynymy xkvt) "oblita est nostra dextra", Castalio.
F6 "Oblivisceris (O Domine) dexterae meae", Gejerus; so some in Michaelis.

Psalm 137:5 In-Context

3 For they that led us prisoners; asked us there the words of songs. And they that led away us said; Sing ye to us an hymn of the songs of Zion. (For they who led us away as prisoners; told us to sing there. Yea, they who led us away said, Sing ye for us a hymn of the songs of Zion.)

4 How shall we sing a song of the Lord; in an alien land? (But how can we sing a song to the Lord, in a foreign, or a strange, land?)

5 If I forget thee, Jerusalem; my right hand be given to forgetting. (Yea, if I forget thee, Jerusalem; may my right hand forget how to play my harp/may my right hand wither away.)

6 My tongue cleave to my cheeks; if I bethink not on thee. If I purposed not of thee, Jerusalem; in the beginning of my gladness. (And may my tongue cleave to my cheeks; if I do not remember thee, Jerusalem. Yea, if I do not think of thee, as my greatest joy.)

7 Lord, have thou mind on the sons of Edom; for the day of Jerusalem. Which say, Extinguish ye, extinguish ye; till to the foundament therein. (Lord, remember what the Edomites did; on that day that Jerusalem fell. They said, Destroy ye it! destroy ye it! unto its foundations!)