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Psalms 137
Exile remembered with a knot in the throat. By the rivers of Babylon the people sit and weep for Zion, harps hung silent on the willows, while their captors demand a cheerful song of home — and the singer asks how that is even possible in a foreign land. Then the tone hardens into an oath and a curse: a vow never to forget Jerusalem, and a raw cry for vengeance on Edom and Babylon.
- 1
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yes, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
- 2
On the willows in that land, we hung up our harps.
- 3
For there, those who led us captive asked us for songs. Those who tormented us demanded songs of joy: “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
- 4
How can we sing the LORD’s song in a foreign land?
- 5
If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill.
- 6
Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I don’t remember you, if I don’t prefer Jerusalem above my chief joy.
- 7
Remember, LORD, against the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem, who said, “Raze it! Raze it even to its foundation!”
- 8
Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, he will be happy who repays you, as you have done to us.
- 9
Happy shall he be, who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock.
From grief to oath to fury
The psalm turns on a self-curse: if I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill, let my tongue stick fast (vv. 5-6). Memory becomes a binding vow. The closing lines naming Edom and the "little ones" dashed against the rock are among scripture's harshest — grief that has curdled into a demand for justice, left unsoftened.
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