Psalms · 9 verses
Psalms 137
Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.
The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
In Babylon, captors demand songs of joy from mourners who have hung their harps in the willows.
Harps in the willowsvv. 1–6
By Babylon’s rivers, the singers sit weeping at the memory of Jerusalem, while their harps hang idle in the willows. Their captors and tormentors ask for a song of Zion, but a song of the LORD sounds impossible in a foreign land. The answer is a pair of wonderfully physical vows: forget Jerusalem, and the right hand fails; cease to remember it, and the tongue sticks fast.
The blessing turns darkvv. 7–9
The singers then call on the LORD to remember Edom’s cry on the day Jerusalem fell: “Destroy it,” down to the foundations. Babylon is addressed as doomed to destruction, and the language of blessing takes a grim, terrible turn, praising repayment and the seizing of infants against the rocks.
The text
Read it
Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
Ps 137:1By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.
Ps 137:2There on the willows we hung our harps,
Ps 137:3for there our captors requested a song; our tormentors demanded songs of joy: “Sing us a song of Zion.”
Ps 137:4How can we sing a song of the LORD in a foreign land?
Ps 137:5If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand cease to function.
Ps 137:6May 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!
Ps 137:7Remember, O LORD, the sons of Edom on the day Jerusalem fell: “Destroy it,” they said, “tear it down to its foundations!”
Ps 137:8O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, blessed is he who repays you as you have done to us.
Ps 137:9Blessed is he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 107 passages were voted onto 9 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 9Isaiah 13:16Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses will be looted, and their wives will be ravished.
- 8Revelation 18:6Give back to her as she has done to others; pay her back double for what she has done; mix her a double portion in her own cup.
- 7Lamentations 4:21–22So rejoice and be glad, O Daughter of Edom, you who dwell in the land of Uz. Yet the cup will pass to you as well; you will get drunk and expose yourself.
- 1Ezekiel 1:1In the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was among the exiles by the River Kebar, the heavens opened and I saw visions of God.
- 9Nahum 3:10Yet she became an exile; she went into captivity. Her infants were dashed to pieces at the head of every street. They cast lots for her dignitaries, and all her nobles were bound in chains.
- 9Hosea 13:16Samaria will bear her guilt because she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open.
- 7Obadiah 1:10–14Because of the violence against your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame and cut off forever.
- 7Jeremiah 49:7–22Concerning Edom, this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Is there no longer wisdom in Teman? Has counsel perished from the prudent? Has their wisdom decayed?
- 7Ezekiel 25:12–14This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because Edom acted vengefully against the house of Judah, and in so doing incurred grievous guilt,
- 92 Kings 8:12“Why is my lord weeping?” asked Hazael. “Because I know the evil you will do to the Israelites,” Elisha replied. “You will set fire to their fortresses, kill their young men with the sword, dash their little ones to pieces, and rip open their pregnant women.”
- 9Hosea 10:14the roar of battle will rise against your people, so that all your fortresses will be demolished as Shalman devastated Beth-arbel in the day of battle, when mothers were dashed to pieces along with their children.
- 1Ezekiel 3:15I came to the exiles at Tel-abib who dwelt by the River Kebar. And for seven days I sat where they sat and remained there among them, overwhelmed.
- 3Luke 21:6“As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
- 4Amos 8:3“In that day,” declares the Lord GOD, “the songs of the temple will turn to wailing. Many will be the corpses, strewn in silence everywhere!”
- 4Isaiah 22:12On that day the Lord GOD of Hosts called for weeping and wailing, for shaven heads and the wearing of sackcloth.
- 6Ezekiel 3:26I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth, and you will be silent and unable to rebuke them, though they are a rebellious house.
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