Psalms 137:3
1 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
2 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.
4 How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a strange land?
5 If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.
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 these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
Read in contextPsalms 9:14
That I may shew forth all thy praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion: I will rejoice in thy salvation.
Read in contextLamentations 2:15–16
All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?
Read in contextMicah 3:12
Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.
Read in contextJeremiah 9:11
And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.
Read in contextPsalms 80:6
Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbours: and our enemies laugh among themselves.
Read in contextRevelation 14:1–3
And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads.
Read in contextNehemiah 4:2
And he spake before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, What do these feeble Jews? will they fortify themselves? will they sacrifice? will they make an end in a day? will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned?
Read in context