INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 137 The occasion of this psalm was the captivity of the Jews in Babylon, and the treatment they met with there; either as foreseen, or as now endured. Aben Ezra ascribes this psalm to David; and so the Syriac version, which calls it, "a psalm of David; the words of the saints... [ Continue Reading ]
BY THE RIVERS OF BABYLON, THERE WE SAT DOWN,.... If by Babylon is meant the country, then the rivers of it are Chebar, Ulai, Tigris, Euphrates, and others; see Ezekiel 1:1; but if the city itself, then only Euphrates, which ran through it; and is expressed by rivers, because of the largeness of it,... [ Continue Reading ]
WE HANGED OUR HARPS UPON THE WILLOWS IN THE MIDST THEREOF. These were musical instruments, used in the temple service by the Levites, who seem to be the persons here speaking; who took care of them, and preserved them from the plunder of the enemy; and carried them with them to Babylon, in hope of r... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THERE THEY THAT CARRIED US AWAY CAPTIVE REQUIRED OF US A SONG,.... Or, "words of a song" z. To repeat the words of one of the songs of Zion, as it is afterwards expressed: this the Babylonians did, as the Targum; who were they that carried the Jews into captivity; and this is given as a reason w... [ Continue Reading ]
HOW SHALL WE SING THE LORD'S SONG IN A STRANGE LAND?] This is the answer returned by the Jews to the above request or demand; it may be, particularly, by the Levites, whose business it was to sing these songs: so the Targum, "immediately the Levites said, how shall we sing the hymns of the Lord in... [ Continue Reading ]
IF I FORGET THEE, O JERUSALEM,.... This was said by one or everyone of the Levites; or singers, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi; or by the congregation of Israel, as Jarchi; by one of them, in the name of the rest; or by the composer of the psalm. The Targum is, "the voice of the Spirit of God answered and... [ Continue Reading ]
IF I DO NOT REMEMBER THEE,.... In prayer, in discourse, in conversation; this is the same as before, to forget, repeated for the confirmation of it; LET MY TONGUE CLEAVE TO THE ROOF OF MY MOUTH; as is the case of a person in a fever, or in a violent thirst, which is to be in great distress, Psalms... [ Continue Reading ]
REMEMBER, O LORD, THE CHILDREN OF EDOM IN THE DAY OF JERUSALEM,.... Of her visitation, calamity, and destruction, how they behaved then, and them for it; who, though the children of Esau and brethren of the Jews, as well as their neighbours, yet hated them; the old grudge of their father, because of... [ Continue Reading ]
O DAUGHTER OF BABYLON, WHO ART TO BE DESTROYED,.... By the determinate counsel and decree of God, and according to divine predictions; see Jeremiah 50:1; so mystical Babylon, antichrist, and the man of sin, who therefore is called the son of perdition, 2 Thessalonians 2:3; because appointed to destr... [ Continue Reading ]
HAPPY [SHALL HE BE] THAT TAKETH AND DASHETH THY LITTLE ONES AGAINST THE STONES. That takes the infants from their mothers' breasts, or out of their arms, and dashes out their brains against a "rock", as the word k signifies; which, though it may seem a piece of cruelty, was but a just retaliation; t... [ Continue Reading ]