Skip to the text

Psalms · Berean Standard Bible

Psalm 137 Berean Standard Bible

Leer en español
About BSB
  • Protestant
  • OT: Masoretic Hebrew
  • NT: Critical text
  • Protestant (66 books)
  • Formal (word for word)
  • 2022
  • Public domain

Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings

Notes on this text (1)
BSB Berean Standard Bible
WEB World English Bible (Classic, with Deuterocanon)
1 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.
1 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yes, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
2 There on the willows we hung our harps,
2 On the willows in that land, we hung up our harps.
3 for there our captors requested a song; our tormentors demanded songs of joy: “Sing us a song of Zion.”
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 a song of the LORD in a foreign land?
4 How can we sing Yahweh’s song in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand cease to function.
5 If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill.
6 May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not exalt Jerusalem as my greatest joy!
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, O LORD, the sons of Edom on the day Jerusalem fell: “Destroy it,” they said, “tear it down to its foundations!”
7 Remember, Yahweh, against the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem, who said, “Raze it! Raze it even to its foundation!”
8 O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, blessed is he who repays you as you have done to us.
8 Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, he will be happy who repays you, as you have done to us.
9 Blessed is he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.
9 Happy shall he be, who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock.

People & places in this chapter

From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.

Places

  • Babylon

    Today: Iraq (on the Euphrates)

    Capital of Nebuchadnezzar's empire on the Euphrates. It destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC and carried Judah into exile, where Daniel and the people kept their faith.

    Cited in the guide: 2 Kings 25:1; Daniel 1:1; Psalm 137:1

    Bible map game · View on OpenStreetMap

Cross references (9)

Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.

  1. 1 Ezekiel 1:1; Ezekiel 3:15; Lamentations 2:10–11; Lamentations 3:48; Lamentations 2:18
  2. 2 Ezekiel 26:13; Isaiah 24:8; Revelation 18:22; Psalm 81:2; Amos 8:10
  3. 3 Luke 21:6; Psalm 9:14; Lamentations 2:15–16; Micah 3:12; Jeremiah 9:11
  4. 4 Amos 8:3; Isaiah 22:12; Hosea 9:4; Lamentations 5:14–15; Ecclesiastes 3:4
  5. 5 Daniel 6:10–11; Jeremiah 51:50; Psalm 122:5–9; Psalm 84:10; Zechariah 11:17
  6. 6 Ezekiel 3:26; Psalm 22:15; Job 29:10; Isaiah 41:17; Psalm 84:10
  7. 7 Lamentations 4:21–22; Ezekiel 25:12–14; Jeremiah 49:7–22; Obadiah 10–14; Habakkuk 3:13
  8. 8 Revelation 18:6; Jeremiah 25:12–14; Isaiah 14:4–24; Revelation 14:8–11; Isaiah 21:1
  9. 9 Isaiah 13:16; Hosea 13:16; Nahum 3:10; 2 Kings 8:12; Hosea 10:14

Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences

Articles and answers on this site that cite Psalm 137.

What the Fathers said

Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).

How these were chosen

“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).

  1. Commentary Augustine of Hippo, Expositions on the Psalms (Psalm CXXXVI)

    (ver. 1). This Psalm contains the praise of God, and all its verses finish in the same way. Wherefore although many things are related here in praise of God, yet His mercy is most commended; for without this plain commendation, he, whom the Holy Spirit used to utter this Psalm, would have no verse be ended.

    Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)

  2. Quotes verse 137:1 John of Damascus, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith (Book IV, Chapters V–VIII)

    And here again: By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down; yea wept.

    Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 9 (1899)