Chapter Overview
Summary
Psalm 137 (MT) / Psalm 136 (LXX) is the BABYLONIAN EXILE lament — 'By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.' The psalm opens with one of literature's most-recognizable grief-images and closes with one of the Psalter's most-difficult-for-modern-readers imprecations: 'Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!' (v. 9). The juxtaposition of exquisite-nostalgia and raw-vengeance has made this the Psalter's most-anthologized and most-controversial poem.
Notable Variants
137:1 'by the rivers of Babylon' opening-line of world-literature fame; 137:5–6 'if I forget you, O Jerusalem' — oath-of-Zion-remembrance; 137:9 'dash your little ones' imprecatory-close raising theological problem.
Structural Notes
MT Ps 137 = LXX Ps 136. 9 verses. Post-exilic lament.
By the rivers of Babylon — there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion.
'By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion' tracks MT. 'BY THE RIVERS OF BABYLON' — one of the most-recognizable opening-lines in world-literature. Multiple classical and popular musical-settings (Verdi's Va, pensiero / Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves in Nabucco; Rivers of Babylon by Boney M, 1978; etc.).
On the willows there we hung our lyres.
'On the willows there we hung up our lyres' tracks MT. LYRES-ON-WILLOWS — the IMAGE of music-silenced-in-exile. The willows (arabim) of the Babylonian rivers.
For there our captors demanded songs from us, and our tormentors demanded joy: "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"
'For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying: Sing us one of the songs of Zion!' tracks MT. CAPTORS-DEMAND-ZION-SONGS — the cultural-violence of forced-performance. The Zion-songs cannot be sung in foreign-land (v. 4 develops).
How can we sing the LORD's song on foreign soil?
'How shall we sing the LORD's song in a foreign land?' tracks MT. THE FOREIGN-LAND SILENCE. The Zion-songs belong to Zion; to sing them for captors' entertainment profanes-them. The 'foreign land' question also sets the Christian-and-Jewish-diasporic pilgrimage-question: how to worship in exile?
If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill.
'If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill!' tracks MT. OATH-OF-REMEMBRANCE. Jewish-tradition recites this line at weddings (breaking the glass ritual) as remembrance-of-Jerusalem even in celebration-moments.
Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy.
'Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!' tracks MT.
Remember, LORD, against the sons of Edom the day of Jerusalem — how they cried, "Tear it down! Tear it down! Down to its foundations!"
'Remember, O LORD, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem, how they said: Lay it bare, lay it bare, down to its foundations!' tracks MT. EDOMITE-COLLABORATION with Babylon during Jerusalem's fall — documented at Obadiah 10–14. The psalm's imprecatory-turn begins here.
Daughter of Babylon, you devastated one — happy is the one who repays you for what you have done to us.
'O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed, blessed shall he be who repays you with what you have done to us!' tracks MT. BABYLON-DOOMED theology. Revelation 18 ('Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great') Christologically-extends the Babylon-judgment.
Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rock.
'Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!' tracks MT. THE MOST-DISCUSSED VERSE IN THE PSALTER. The imprecation matches Babylon's own-practices (Hosea 13:16; 2 Kings 8:12) — retributive-mirror ('as you did, so it be done to you'). No NT citation of this verse. Some Christian-interpretive-traditions allegorize the 'little ones of Babylon' as nascent-sins-to-be-destroyed-before-they-grow-large (Origen, Bede); others insist on the verse's plain-lament-of-the-victim that Scripture-preserves-without-endorsing. The psalm stands as Scripture's most acute expression of what violent-trauma produces in the victim's-heart — prayer-honesty, not moral-prescription.