Psalm 137:8

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Psalms 137:8-9

Psalms 137:8-9. O daughter of Babylon By which he understands the city and empire of Babylon, and the people thereof, who art to be destroyed Who by God’s righteous and irrevocable sentence, art devoted to certain destruction, and whose destruction is particularly and circumstantially foretold by God’s holy prophets. For the subject of these two verses is the same with that of many chapters in Isaiah and Jeremiah; namely, the vengeance of Heaven executed upon Babylon by Cyrus, raised up... read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Psalms 137:1-9

Psalms 137:0 Against the BabyloniansThe Israelites who first sang this song were captives in Babylon, working in a slave camp beside one of Babylon’s rivers. The Babylonian slave-masters tried to create some amusement for themselves (and some torment for their victims) by asking the downcast slaves to sing some of the merry songs of glorious Jerusalem (1-3). The cruel insults of the slave-masters pierce the hearts of the Israelites, because their beloved Jerusalem is in ruins. How can they... read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Psalms 137:8

to be destroyed. Hezekiah must have been familiar with Isaiah's prophecies, who employs the very words of verses: Psalms 137:8 , Psalms 137:9 . (Isaiah 13:6 , Isaiah 13:16-18 ; Isaiah 21:9 ; Isaiah 47:14 , Isaiah 47:15 . Compare Nahum 3:10 .) Happy. See App-63 . for the Beatitudes of the Psalms. rewardeth. See notes above, which show that the "post-exilic" assumption involves insuperable difficulties if this Psalm is sundered from the contemporary prophecies of Isaiah (especially Psa 13:1-14... read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Psalms 137:8-9

Psalms 137:8-9. O daughter of Babylon, &c.— O daughter of Babylon, the destroyed; [not Babylon the proud, as she now is; but Babylon the destroyed, for so she certainly shall be, when it comes to her turn;] How happy he that shall, &c. The sense is, "God will give a prosperous success to the Persians and Medes, against the Babylonians or Chaldeans." See Jeremiah 9:26. Isaiah 13:19; Isaiah 13:22. It has been objected, that the imprecations in these verses against Babylon do not well... read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Psalms 137:8

8. daughter of Babylon—the people (Psalms 9:13). Their destruction had been abundantly foretold (Isaiah 13:14; Jeremiah 51:23). For the terribleness of that destruction, God's righteous judgment, and not the passions of the chafed Israelites, was responsible. read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Psalms 137:1-9

Psalms 137The psalmist mourned the plight of the exiled Israelites. He expressed strong love for Zion and strong hatred for Israel’s enemies. This is an imprecatory psalm. [Note: See the appendix in VanGemeren, pp. 830-32, on imprecations in the psalms, and Day, "The Imprecatory . . .," pp. 173-76.] "This psalm is better known, probably because it is one of the few psalms which contain a certain and explicit historical reference. It invites narrative specificity. It clearly comes out of the... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Psalms 137:7-9

3. Hatred for enemies 137:7-9 read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Psalms 137:8-9

He also prayed that the Babylonians would experience destruction similar to the one they had inflicted on the Israelites (cf. Isaiah 13:16). Evidently during the destruction of Jerusalem, the Babylonian soldiers mercilessly killed young Jewish children. Psalms 137:8 a should read, "O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction" (NIV). God had promised to curse those who cursed Abraham’s descendants (Genesis 12:3). From the viewpoint of the victors over Babylon, the Persians, the fall of Babylon... read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 137:1-9

A lifelike memorial of the bitter experiences of exile concluding with (a) a strong expression of patriotism, and (b) an outburst of hatred against the enemies of Jerusalem. Probably written soon after the exile.1. Rivers of Babylon] The river was the Euphrates, from which branched off a network of canals, on whose banks grew the willows here referred to. These were a species of poplar.2. Harps] the Kinnor was the most ancient kind of harp, properly a lyre. 3. A song] lit. ’the words of a... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Psalms 137:8

(8) Daughter of Babylon—i.e., Babylon itself. (See Psalms 9:14, Note.)Who art to be destroyed.—Considerable doubt attaches to the meaning of the Hebrew word here. Our version is that of Theodotion. Aquila and Jerome have “wasted” (comp. Prayer Book version); Symmachus, “robber;” the LXX. and Vulg., “wretched.”As pointed, the word is a passive participle, and must be rendered as by Aquila, “wasted” or “destroyed,” but with the recollection that a Hebrew would thus speak proleptically of a doom... read more

Group of Brands