> [[psalm-136|← Previous]] | [[psalm-00|TOC]] | [[psalm-138|Next →]] --- # Psalm 137 ## Sorrow and Hope in Exile ### I 1 By the rivers of Babylon there we sat weeping when we remembered Zion. 2 On the poplars in its midst we hung up our harps. 3 For there our captors asked us for the words of a song; Our tormentors, for joy: “Sing for us a song of Zion!” 4 But how could we sing a song of the LORD in a foreign land? ### II 5 If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand forget. 6 May my tongue stick to my palate if I do not remember you, If I do not exalt Jerusalem beyond all my delights. ### III 7 Remember, LORD, against Edom that day at Jerusalem. They said: “Level it, level it down to its foundations!” 8 Desolate Daughter Babylon, you shall be destroyed, blessed the one who pays you back what you have done us! 9 Blessed the one who seizes your children and smashes them against the rock. \* (Psalm 137) A singer refuses to sing the people’s sacred songs in an alien land despite demands from Babylonian captors ([Ps 137:1] – [4]). The singer swears an oath by what is most dear to a musician—hands and tongue—to exalt Jerusalem always ([Ps 137:5] – [6]). The Psalm ends with a prayer that the old enemies of Jerusalem, Edom and Babylon, be destroyed ([Ps 137:7] – [9]). \* (137:9) Blessed the one who seizes your children and smashes them against the rock: the children represent the future generations, and so must be destroyed if the enemy is truly to be eradicated. a. (137:1) ([[ezekiel-03|Ez 3]]:15]; [Lam 3:48]. b. (137:2) [[isaiah-24|Is 24]]:8; [Lam 5:14]. c. (137:5) [Jer 51:50]. d. (137:7) [Jer 49:7]; [Lam 4:21] – [22]; [Ez 25:12] – [14]. e. (137:8) [Is 47:1] – [3]; [Jer 50] – [51]. f. (137:9) [[hosea-14|Hos 14]]:1. --- _New American Bible, revised edition_ (2010, 1991, 1986, 1970) Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. > [[psalm-136|← Previous]] | [[psalm-00|TOC]] | [[psalm-138|Next →]]