Psalm 137 is the 137th psalm of the
Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the
King James Version: "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down". The Book of Psalms is part of the
third section of the
Hebrew Bible, and a book of the
ChristianOld Testament. In the slightly different numbering system used in the Greek
Septuagint and Latin
Vulgate translations of the Bible, this psalm is Psalm 136. In Latin, it is known by the
incipit, "Super flumina Babylonis".[1] The psalm is a
communal lament about remembering Zion, and yearning for Jerusalem while dwelling in exile during the
Babylonian captivity.
The psalm forms a regular part of liturgy in
Jewish,
Eastern Orthodox,
Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican and other Protestant traditions. It has often been set to music and paraphrased in hymns.
Text
Hebrew
The following table shows the Hebrew text[2][3] of the Psalm with vowels alongside an English translation based upon the
JPS 1917 translation (now in the
public domain).
Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones Against the rock.
King James Version
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.
For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
How shall we sing the LORD's song in a strange land?
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.
If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.
Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.
O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.
Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.
Psalm 137 is a
hymn expressing the yearnings of the Jewish people during their Babylonian exile. In its whole form of nine verses, the psalm reflects the yearning for Jerusalem as well as hatred for the Holy City's enemies with sometimes violent imagery.
Rabbinical sources attributed the poem to the prophet
Jeremiah,[4] and the Septuagint version of the psalm bears the superscription: "For David. By Jeremias, in the Captivity."[5]
Verses 1–4
The early lines of the psalm describe the sadness of the
Israelites in exile, while remembering their homeland, weeping and hanging their
harps on trees. Asked to "sing the Lord's song in a strange land", they refuse.
001.
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
002.
We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.
003.
For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
004.
How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?
Methodist writer
Joseph Benson reflects on the "inexpressible pathos ... in these few words! How do they, at once, transport us to Babylon, and place before our eyes the mournful situation of the Israelitish captives! Driven from their native country, stripped of every comfort and convenience, in a strange land among idolaters, wearied and broken-hearted, they sit in silence by those hostile waters." He argues that the reference to harps reflects "all instruments of music" and that the words can probably be interpreted to mean that the singers were
Levites used to the performance of music in the service of the
temple.[6]
Verses 5–6
In verses 5–6 the speaker turns into self-exhortation to remember Jerusalem:
005.
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget [her cunning].
006.
If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.
Verses 7–9
The psalm ends with prophetic predictions of violent revenge.
007.
Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.
008.
O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.
009.
Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.
Liturgical uses
Judaism
The psalm is customarily recited on
Tisha B'Av and by some during the nine days preceding Tisha B'Av, commemorating the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem.[citation needed]
After the
Second Vatican Council, the last three verses of the psalm were deleted from liturgical books because their graphic cruelty was seen as incompatible with the
Gospel message.[14] In the three-year cycle of texts for the
Mass of Paul VI, promulgated in 1970 and called the Ordinary Form, this psalm is read on
Laetare Sunday (that is the Fourth Sunday in
Lent) of Year B.[citation needed]
The psalm has been set to music by many composers. Many settings omit the last verse. The hymnwriter
John L. Bell comments alongside his own setting of this Psalm: "The final verse is omitted in this metricization, because its seemingly outrageous curse is better dealt with in preaching or group conversation. It should not be forgotten, especially by those who have never known exile, dispossession or the rape of people and land."[17]
The first composition in
Eustache Du Caurroy's Meslanges de la musique, published in 1610, a year after the composer's death, is "Le long des eaux, ou se bagne", a six-part setting of
Gilles Durant de la Bergerie's paraphrase of Psalm 137.[36][37][38]Salamone Rossi (1570–1630) set the psalm in Hebrew (עַל נַהֲרוֹת בָּבֶל, Al naharot Bavel) for four parts.[39]Matthew Locke's Super flumina Babylonis motet is an extended setting of the first nine verses of the psalm.[40][41] The psalm's first two verses were used for a musical setting in a
round by English composer
Philip Hayes.[42]William Billings adapted the text to describe the British occupation of Boston in his anthem "Lamentation over Boston".[43][44]
Artemy Vedel composed two choral concertos based on the psalm in Ukrainian, Na rekakh Vavilonskikh.[45]
Psalm 137 was the inspiration for the famous slave chorus "
Va, pensiero" from Verdi's opera Nabucco (1842).[48]Charles-Valentin Alkan's piano piece Super flumina Babylonis: Paraphrase, Op. 52 (1859), is in the printed score preceded by a French translation of Psalm 137.[49][50]Charles Gounod set "Près du fleuve étranger", a French paraphrase of the psalm, in 1861.[51][52] In 1866 this setting was published with
Henry Farnie's text version, as "By Babylon's wave: Psalm CXXXVII".[53][54]
The second of the Two Psalms by
Harry Partch (1901–1974) is "By the Rivers of Babylon", which he recorded in 1942 in a version for voice, chromelodeon and adapted viola.[61]
Don McLean covered Hayes's round as "Babylon", which was the final track on his 1971 album American Pie. Another cover of the round was featured at the end of the episode "
Babylon" during the first season of Mad Men.[67]
Estonian composer
Arvo Pärt composed An den Wassern zu Babel saßen wir und weinten in 1976 (revised 1984).[68]
Welsh poet
Evan Evans' work "A Paraphrase of Psalm CXXXVII" is a direct answer to Psalm 137 and parallels the plight of the Welsh bards with that of the Jews in the psalm.[citation needed]
Phrases from the psalm have been referenced in numerous works, including:
In the third stanza, The Fire Sermon, of
T. S. Eliot's 1922 poem The Waste Land line 182 is: 'By the waters of Leman I sat down and wept...'. Leman is both the French for
Lake Geneva and an archaic word for "
mistress".[75]
Leonard Cohen makes several references to the psalm in the song and poem By the Rivers Dark which appears on his 2001 album Ten New Songs, and in his 2006 poetry collection Book of Longing.
In Book X, Chapter 7 of The Brothers Karamazov, Captain Snegiryov quotes verses 5 and 6.
In the 2010 video game
Fallout New Vegas, in the Honest Hearts DLC, Joshua Graham quotes Psalm 137, likening the Babylonian captivity of the Jews to the White Legs' war with two other tribes, the Dead Horses and the Sorrows.<refpp>
Joshua Graham Psalm 137, retrieved 28 December 2023</ref>
In the 2021 debut of the comic, "King Spawn", writer Sean Lewis and Spawn creator Todd McFarlane introduce a cult called "Psalm 137" which initiates a terrorist campaign targeting children.[76]
Pope Gregory X quoted Psalm 137 ("If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning") before departing from the
Crusades upon his election by the
papal conclave, 1268–1271.
^James L. Kugel, "Psalm 137", in In Potiphar's House: The Interpretive Life of Biblical Texts, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994)
^
Translated from the Greek Septuagint by the Holy Transfiguration Monastery. (1974). The Psalter According to the Seventy. Vol. 1987, second printing. Boston MA: Holy Transfiguration Monastery. p. 241.
ISBN0-943405-00-9.