Psalms 137
What Happens in This Chapter
The people of Israel have been carried far from home to Babylon. They sit by the rivers there and cry when they remember Jerusalem. The men who captured them ask them to sing happy songs from home, and they cannot do it. The psalm ends by asking God to remember what Edom did, and by saying Babylon will be paid back for what it did.
Plain reading written for kids. Short sentences, everyday words, one idea at a time.
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
1We sat by the rivers in the land of Babylon. We cried there when we remembered Zion, our home city of Jerusalem.
2We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.
2We hung our harps up in the willow trees. A harp is an instrument with strings.
3For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
3The men who took us away asked us to sing. The men who ruined our city wanted happy music. They said, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion."
4How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a strange land?
4How can we sing the LORD's song here? This is not our land.
5If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.
5Jerusalem, I will never forget you. If I do, may my right hand lose its skill.
"Cunning" in 1611 English meant skill, not trickery. The hand is a hand that plays the harp.
6If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.
6May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I forget you. Jerusalem, you make me happier than anything else does.
7Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.
7LORD, remember the people of Edom on the day Jerusalem fell. They shouted, "Tear it down! Tear it down to the ground!"
Edom was a nation next door to Judah. They cheered while enemies broke Jerusalem down.
8O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.
8Babylon, you will be torn down too. Glad is the one who pays you back for what you did to us.
The old words say "daughter of Babylon." That is a way of speaking to the city itself.
9Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.
9Glad is the one who takes your little children. He will throw them against the rocks.
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