Psalms 137:3
1 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.
2 There on the willows we hung our harps,
for there our captors requested a song; our tormentors demanded songs of joy: “Sing us a song of Zion.”
4 How can we sing a song of the LORD in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand cease to function.
Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.
Compare
- BSB
- for there our captors requested a song; our tormentors demanded songs of joy: “Sing us a song of Zion.”
- KJV
- 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.
- WEB
- 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!”
- ASV
- 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.
- DARBY
- For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that made us wail [required] mirth, [saying,] Sing us [one] of the songs of Zion.
- BLB
- For there our captors required of us the words of a song, and our tormentors, joy: “Sing to us a song of Zion.”
- ÅB
- for der krevde våre fangevoktere sanger av oss, våre plagere at vi skulle være glade: Syng for oss av Sions sanger!
- OTB
- For der ba våre fangevoktere oss om sanger,
Og våre plagerne om glede, og sa:
“Syng for oss en av Sions sanger!” - B1930
- for der krevde våre fangevoktere sanger av oss, våre plagere at vi skulde være glade: Syng for oss av Sions sanger!
Study notes (Tyndale)
Original text and word study
Cross references
Luke 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.”
Read in contextPsalms 9:14
that I may declare all Your praises— that within the gates of Daughter Zion I may rejoice in Your salvation.
Read in contextLamentations 2:15–16
All who pass by clap their hands at you in scorn. They hiss and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?”
Read in contextMicah 3:12
Therefore, because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, and the temple mount a wooded ridge.
Read in contextJeremiah 9:11
“And I will make Jerusalem a heap of rubble, a haunt for jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”
Read in contextPsalms 80:6
You make us contend with our neighbors; our enemies mock us.
Read in contextRevelation 14:1–3
Then I looked and saw the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him 144,000 who had His name and His Father’s name written on their foreheads.
Read in contextNehemiah 4:2
before his associates and the army of Samaria, saying, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Can they restore the wall by themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day? Can they bring these burnt stones back to life from the mounds of rubble?”
Read in context