Psalms 137

We sat down by the rivers of Babylon, and there we cried, when we remembered Zion.

1By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.

NoteBabylon was the empire that captured Jerusalem in 586 BC and deported much of its population; the "rivers" are the Euphrates and the canal system of southern Mesopotamia, flat irrigated country utterly unlike the hills of Judah. Zion was originally the ridge Jerusalem was built on, and came to stand for the city as a whole, and especially for its temple.

2There among the trees we hung up our harps on the willow branches.

2We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.

NoteHarps here are the lyres used by temple singers and at feasts, instruments of public celebration, not private music. Hanging them on the trees is putting them out of use. The tree named is a species that grows along Mesopotamian watercourses; "willow" is the traditional English guess, and it may in fact be the Euphrates poplar.

3There the men who had taken us away as prisoners asked us for a song. The men who tormented us wanted cheerful music. They said, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion."

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.

Note"Songs of Zion" were the temple songs of Jerusalem, sung about the city and at its festivals, so the captors are asking the prisoners to perform the music of the place they have just lost. The King James "required" means demanded, not requested, and "they that wasted us" means those who laid our country waste.

4How can we sing the LORD's song in a foreign country?

4How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a strange land?

Note"The LORD's song" means the temple music, tied by custom to one sanctuary and one city. "A strange land" in the King James means a foreign land, not an odd one.

5Jerusalem, if I ever forget you, let my right hand lose its skill.

5If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.

NoteThe Hebrew says simply "let my right hand forget" and leaves the object out; translators supply "her cunning," which in 1611 English meant skill, not trickery, the skill in question being the harp-playing of the previous verses. Other readings take it as the hand withering or going limp. The ambiguity is in the original.

6If I do not remember you, let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth. Let it happen if I do not put Jerusalem above my greatest joy.

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.

NoteA tongue stuck to the palate cannot sing or speak, the singer calls down on himself the loss of the very ability he is being asked to use. This verse and the one before it have the form of a self-curse, the standard ancient way of swearing an oath: may this happen to me if I break my word.

7LORD, remember what the people of Edom did on the day Jerusalem fell. They said, "Tear it down! Tear it down, right to the ground!"

7Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.

NoteEdom was the neighboring kingdom southeast of Judah, whose people were traditionally reckoned as descendants of Esau, Jacob's brother, so a kindred nation, which is why their conduct is singled out. "The day of Jerusalem" is an idiom for the day of its downfall, when the city was taken and burned. "Rase" (one s) is the old spelling of raze, to level to the ground; the Hebrew word is a shout, roughly "Strip it bare!"

8Daughter of Babylon, you are going to be destroyed. Blessed is the one who pays you back for what you did to us.

8O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.

Note"Daughter of Babylon" is a standard Hebrew way of personifying a city and its people as a woman: it does not mean anyone's daughter. "Who art to be destroyed" translates a form that can mean either the one already doomed or the one who is herself the destroyer; both senses have been read here. "Rewardeth thee as thou hast served us" means pays you back in the same coin, the ordinary legal principle of an exactly matching penalty.

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

9Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.

NoteKilling the children of a captured city was a recognized practice of ancient warfare, described elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible as something done to Israelite towns; the line asks that Babylon receive precisely what Babylon inflicted. "Happy shall he be" is not a comment on the man's mood: it is the fixed opening formula of a blessing, the same phrase that begins Psalm 1, and would be better heard as "blessed is the one who."