psalm-137:2-4

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Psalms 137:2

We hanged our harps upon the willows - The harps once used to accompany the songs of praise and the service of God in the temple; the harps with which they had sought to beguile their weary hours, and to console their sad spirits in their captivity. The word rendered “willows” - ערבים ‛ărâbiym - used only in the plural, denotes the willow or osier, so called from its white, silvery leaves. Gesenius, Lexicon. Compare Isaiah 15:7. It is probable that the weeping willow - the willow with long... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Psalms 137:3

For there they that carried us away captive - The Babylonians.Required of us a song - Asked of us a song. The word does not express the idea of compulsion or force. Margin, as in Hebrew, words of a song. Perhaps the idea is that they did not merely ask music, but they wished to hear the words - the songs themselves - in which they were accustomed to praise God. This may have been a taunt, and the request may have been in derision; or it may have been seriously, and with no desire to reproach... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Psalms 137:4

How shall we sing the Lord’s song - The song designed to celebrate his praise; that is, appropriate to the worship of Yahweh.In a strange land - Far from our home; far from the temple; exiles; captives: how can we find spirit in such circumstances to sing? How can we do that which would be indicative of what we do not feel, and cannot feel - joy and happiness! The idea is not that those psalms or songs would be profaned by being sung there, or that there would be anything improper in itself in... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Psalms 137:2

Psalms 137:2. We hanged our harps upon the willows, in the midst thereof. These are, not without great probability, supposed to be the words of some holy Levites, who had been accustomed to music, both vocal and instrumental, in the service of the temple. Harps are here put, by a synecdoche, for all instruments of music. It is further to be observed, that although the harp was used by the Greeks in mourning, yet it was used by the Hebrews in rejoicing, as is manifest from Genesis 31:27; 2... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Psalms 137:3

Psalms 137:3. There they that carried us away Our new masters, who had made us their slaves, and carried us captives out of our own land; required of us a song דברי שׁיר , the words of a song: in the LXX., λογους ωδων , words of songs. They required us to entertain them with our music and singing. And they that wasted us Hebrew, ותוללינו , contumulatores nostri, they that laid us on heaps, namely, that laid Jerusalem and the temple in ruins, required of us mirth, שׁמחה , joy, ... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Psalms 137:4

Psalms 137:4. How shall we sing the Lord’s song Those sacred songs which are appropriated to the worship of the true God in his temple, and are appointed by him to be sung only to his honour and in his service; in a strange land When we are banished from our own temple and country, and among those who are strangers and enemies to our God and his worship? How can you imagine that miserable slaves should be disposed to sing songs of joy? Or that we can frame our minds in the land where we... 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 137:3

they that carried us away: i.e. the captives of Judah, as those of Israel had been by Shalmaneser and Sargon. The latter took away only 27,280 from Samaria. See note on 1 Chronicles 5:6 ; and App-67 . read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Psalms 137:4

the LORD'S. Hebrew. Jehovah. s. App-4 . strange = foreigner's. read more

James Burton Coffman

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - Psalms 137:2

"Upon the willows in the midst thereofWe hanged up our harps.For there they that led us captive required of us songs,And they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying,Sing us one of the songs of Zion."The willows were a quick-growth tree that sprang up in abundance along the many canals of the Euphrates."They that led us captive required of us songs." The songs of the captives would have been considered as sport or entertainment by their masters; and the very fact of their hanging their... read more

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Psalms 137:2

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Psalms 137:3

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Psalms 137:4

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Psalms 137:2

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Psalms 137:3

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Psalms 137:4

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Psalms 137:1-9

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Psalms 137:3

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Psalms 137:4

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - Psalms 137:2

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