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Mga Awit 137

7 salin · basahin sa 12 tradisyon.

NCB · Bagong Bibliya ng Konsenso

1By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat, also we wept, when we remembered Zion. 2On the poplars in her midst, we hung our lyres. 3For there our captors asked us for words of a song, and our tormentors for joy, saying, "Sing us from a song of Zion!" 4How can we sing the song of the LORD on foreign soil? 5If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget! 6Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not raise Jerusalem above my highest joy. 7Remember, LORD, against the sons of Edom the day of Jerusalem; who said, "Raze it! Raze it, down to her foundation!" 8Daughter of Babylon, the devastated one, happy is he who repays you your dealing that you dealt to us. 9Happy is he who seizes and dashes your little ones against the rock.

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Mga pinagtatalunang talata sa kabanatang ito

  • Ang Awit 137 at ang sumpa nito

    Nagtatapos ang salmo sa isang pagpapala sa mga maghahampas sa mga sanggol ng Babilonia sa bato—isang tekstong nagbunsod ng mga espirituwal, propetiko, at historikal na pagbasa sa iba't ibang tradisyong Judio at Kristiyano.

Kung saan nagkakasundo ang mga tradisyon

Across all families, it is recognized that the captives express profound grief by the rivers of Babylon and refuse to sing sacred songs for their captors, and universally, traditions affirm that the psalm concludes with a call for exact retaliatory justice, including the violent dashing of Babylonian infants against rocks. It is also highly affirmed that the psalmist takes a self-maledictory oath to prioritize the memory of Jerusalem above all other joys, and broadly, the violent dashing of… Mag-sign in para mabasa ang ang buong pinagkaisahan →

Pinaniniwalaan ng karamihan, pero hindi ng lahat

  • The dashing of Babylonian infants against the rock is interpreted allegorically as the ascetical practice of destroying nascent sinful thoughts by striking them against Christ. (7 affirm)

Kung saan nagkakaiba ang mga tradisyon

  • Babylon typologically represents the corrupt, anti-God world system and apostate religious institutions.

    anglican: QUALIFY; lutheran: QUALIFY; reformed: AFFIRM; baptist: QUALIFY; anabaptist: AFFIRM; pentecostal: QUALIFY; adventist: AFFIRM

  • The hanging of harps on the willows symbolizes the loss of spiritual joy when the soul is captive to worldly passions.

    oriental-orthodox: AFFIRM; pentecostal: QUALIFY

  • The refusal to sing the Lord's song in Babylon models the Church's calling to refuse cultural and theological compromise with the secular world.

    anglican: QUALIFY; lutheran: AFFIRM; baptist: AFFIRM; methodist: DENY; anabaptist: AFFIRM; pentecostal: AFFIRM; restorationist: AFFIRM

  • The imprecatory language is an authentic expression of raw human trauma that the Holy Spirit permits in prayer.

    anglican: QUALIFY; reformed: DENY; baptist: DENY; methodist: DENY; anabaptist: AFFIRM; pentecostal: AFFIRM; restorationist: QUALIFY

  • The imprecations against Babylon's infants are inspired prophetic declarations of divine judgment rather than expressions of personal malice.

    anglican: DENY; reformed: AFFIRM; baptist: AFFIRM; methodist: AFFIRM; anabaptist: DENY; adventist: QUALIFY; restorationist: AFFIRM

  • The violent vengeance described in the psalm belongs exclusively to the Old Covenant dispensation and is superseded by the New Testament ethic of enemy-love.

    reformed: DENY; methodist: AFFIRM; anabaptist: AFFIRM; restorationist: AFFIRM

  • The entire psalm, including the violent imprecations, is appropriate for unedited regular public liturgical recitation and corporate singing.

    catholic: QUALIFY; anglican: QUALIFY; reformed: AFFIRM; methodist: DENY

  • The imprecatory verses are rightly omitted from regular public recitation due to pastoral and ethical concerns regarding violent language in Christian worship.

    catholic: QUALIFY; anglican: QUALIFY; reformed: DENY; methodist: AFFIRM; pentecostal: DENY

Kung paano ito binabasa ng bawat tradisyon

Ang bawat pagbasa ay ginawa nang hiwalay — walang tradisyon na nakakakita sa sagot ng iba.

Catholic

The immediate layer expresses the historical grief of the Jewish exiles in Babylon. By the irrigation canals, they mourn the loss of Zion (verse 1) and hang up their instruments (verse 2), refusing to entertain their captors with sacred songs in a profane and foreign land (verses 3-4). The psalmist swears a solemn oath of fidelity to Zion, invoking physical self-malediction upon his hand and tongue if he should forget Jerusalem (verses 5-6). The psalm concludes with raw imprecatory cries, asking God to remember Edom's complicity in Jerusalem's destruction (verse 7) and pronouncing a blessing on whoever executes severe, violent retribution against Babylon and its infants (verses 8-9), reflecting the brutal lex talionis of ancient warfare. Reception: The Catholic tradition, bridging both East and West, receives this psalm as the primary scriptural paradigm for the soul's exile in the fallen world. Augustine of Hippo, in his 'Enarrationes in Psalmos', establishes the foundational Latin allegorical reading: the 'rivers of Babylon' (verse 1) represent the transient, mortal flow of the earthly city, beside which the captive citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem sit and weep, refusing to find their ultimate joy in temporal things. The most historically challenging verses (verses 8-9) receive a nearly unanimous ascetical spiritualization. Benedict of Nursia, in the 'Rule of St. Benedict', draws on earlier monastic fathers like John Cassian to interpret the 'little ones' of Babylon as incipient, newly formed sinful thoughts or temptations. To 'dash' them against the rock (verse 9) is to destroy them immediately upon conception by striking them against the Rock, which is Christ. This exegesis is equally central to the Eastern Catholic ascetical tradition; Hesychios of Sinai, in 'On Watchfulness and Holiness', uses verse 9 as the defining image for nepsis (spiritual watchfulness), where demonic logismoi (thoughts) are dashed against the rock of Christ through prayer.

Eastern Orthodox

In its immediate historical and literary setting, Psalm 137 is a profound exilic lament. The Judean captives sit by the irrigation canals of Babylon, weeping over the loss of Jerusalem (verses 1-2). Their captors mockingly demand the sacred songs of Zion, which the exiles refuse to sing in an unclean, foreign land (verses 3-4). The psalmist binds himself to the memory of Jerusalem with dire oaths of self-malediction (verses 5-6). The psalm concludes with violent imprecations against those who destroyed Zion: a plea for God to remember Edom's betrayal (verse 7) and a declaration of grim blessing upon whoever visits brutal, exact retribution upon the infants of Babylon (verses 8-9). Reception: The Eastern Orthodox tradition receives this text (numbered as Psalm 136 in the Septuagint) through a profoundly ascetic and allegorical lens, guided by the patristic consensus. The brutal imagery of verses 8-9, which presents severe moral difficulty if read purely literally, is universally spiritualized within Orthodox monastic theology. Origen established, and later ascetic writers like Hesychius the Priest cemented, the interpretation of Babylon as the state of spiritual confusion and captivity to the passions. The 'little ones' or infants of Babylon are understood as 'logismoi'—incipient, nascent sinful thoughts or demonic suggestions. The 'rock' is universally identified as Christ. Thus, the blessing in verse 9 is not a call for physical violence, but a mandate for 'nepsis' (spiritual watchfulness): the blessed believer is the one who violently cuts off sinful thoughts at their very conception, dashing them against the Jesus Prayer and the name of Christ before they can grow into mature passions.

Oriental Orthodox

The psalm records the historical grief of the Israelites exiled in Babylon (verses 1-2). Taunted by their captors to sing the songs of Zion, they find themselves unable to sing the Lord's song in a foreign land (verses 3-4). The psalmist binds himself with oaths to always remember and prefer Jerusalem (verses 5-6). The text concludes with stark imprecations, asking God to remember Edom's hostility (verse 7) and pronouncing a blessing on the one who repays Babylon by dashing its infants against the rock (verses 8-9). Reception: In the Oriental Orthodox tradition, the harsh imprecatory language of the chapter is entirely transfigured through the lens of early Egyptian asceticism and Alexandrian typology. The passage is read not as a charter for physical vengeance, but as a manual for internal spiritual warfare. Babylon represents the captivity of the soul to sin, the passions, and demonic forces, while Zion and Jerusalem (verses 1, 5) represent the kingdom of heaven and the pure state of the soul in communion with God. The most distinctive feature of this tradition's reception is its interpretation of the Babylonian infants. Athanasius of Alexandria reads the 'little ones' (verse 9) as the infant stages of sin—newly born evil thoughts or nascent temptations. According to this spiritual reading, the believer is blessed who seizes these initial, small thoughts and dashes them against the Rock, which the Apostle Paul elsewhere identifies as Christ, destroying the sin before it can mature.

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Bawat salin

Ang parehong kabanata sa 7 public-domain na salin.

WEB · World English Bible

1By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yes, we wept, when we remembered Zion. 2On the willows in that land, we hung up our harps. 3For 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!” 4How can we sing Yahweh’s song in a foreign land? 5If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill. 6Let 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. 7Remember, Yahweh, against the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem, who said, “Raze it! Raze it even to its foundation!” 8Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, he will be happy who repays you, as you have done to us. 9Happy shall he be, who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock.

KJV · King James Version

1By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. 2We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. 3For 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. 4How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? 5If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. 6If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. 7Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof. 8O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. 9Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.

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Mga pagkakaiba na nagpapabago sa kahulugan (9)
  • v1 [stylistic]: variations in phrasing the sequence and conjunction of sitting and weeping — “sat down yea we” (KJV, ASV, DARBY) vs “Yes” (WEB, WEBSTER) vs “did sit” (YLT) vs “and” (DRC)
  • v3 [lexical]: different ways of translating the term for those who took the people captive — “they that carried” (KJV, DARBY, WEBSTER) vs “led” (ASV, DRC) vs “those who led” (WEB) vs “our captors asked” (YLT)
  • v4 [grammatical]: different modal verbs indicating ability, future intent, or hypothetical action for singing — “shall” (KJV, ASV, WEBSTER, DRC) vs “can” (WEB) vs “do” (YLT) vs “should” (DARBY)
  • v5 [interpretive]: whether to supply an object like 'skill' for the hand's forgetting, leave the verb absolute, or translate it as passive — “its skill” (WEB, DARBY) vs “skill” (ASV, WEBSTER) vs “forget her cunning” (KJV) vs “forgetteth” (YLT) vs “be forgotten” (DRC)
  • v6 [lexical]: translating the idiom for 'head of my joy' as 'above' or 'the beginning of' — “above” (WEB, KJV, ASV, YLT, DARBY, WEBSTER) vs “the beginning of” (DRC)
  • v7 [interpretive]: translation of the divine name and the preposition governing the action towards Edom — “O Lord” (KJV, WEBSTER, DRC) vs “Jehovah against” (ASV, DARBY) vs “Yahweh against” (WEB) vs “Jehovah for” (YLT)
  • v7 [lexical]: translating the Hebrew word for descendants as 'children' or 'sons' — “children” (WEB, KJV, ASV, WEBSTER, DRC) vs “sons” (YLT, DARBY)
  • v7 [grammatical]: whether the foundation is referred to with a possessive pronoun or a definite article — “its” (WEB, YLT, DARBY, WEBSTER) vs “the” (KJV, ASV, DRC)
  • v9 [lexical]: translation of the word for the hard surface as 'rock' or 'stones' — “rock” (WEB, ASV, YLT, DARBY, DRC) vs “stones” (KJV, WEBSTER)

Sa likod ng pahinang ito

Pinagmulang teksto. Hebrew/Aramaic (Westminster Leningrad Codex tradition, via STEPBible TAHOT). Hebrew text from the Westminster Leningrad Codex.

Mga banal na pangalan: YHWH (the LORD).

Kinonsulta rin, pero hindi ibinilang sa pinagkaisahan

Academic textual-historical analysis

Academic analysis of Psalm 137 grounds its vivid imagery in the historical realities of the Babylonian exile. The 'rivers of Babylon' (v. 1) are understood to refer to the extensive network of irrigation canals in Mesopotamia. The 'willows' (v. 2, Heb. 'arabim') on which the captives hang their lyres (often translated 'harps') are widely identified by botanists and philologists as Euphrates poplars (Populus euphratica). The captives' refusal to sing 'Yahweh's song in a foreign land' (vv. 3-4) reflects ancient Near Eastern concepts of territorial deities, where cultic worship was inextricably linked to the deity's geographic domain. Text-critically, verse 5 presents a famous crux: the Masoretic Text reads 'let my right hand forget' (tishkach), which lacks a direct object. While many English translations supply 'its skill,' scholars frequently suggest emending the Hebrew by metathesis to 'tikchash' ('grow lean,' 'fail,' or 'wither'), creating a stricter anatomical parallel with the tongue cleaving to the palate in verse 6. The psalm concludes with fierce imprecations against Edom (v. 7) and Babylon (vv. 8-9). The historical animosity toward Edom stems from their opportunistic complicity during the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. The shocking imagery of dashing infants against rocks (v. 9) is contextualized within the brutal conventions of Ancient Near Eastern warfare and the principle of lex talionis (retributive justice), mirroring the devastation Babylon inflicted upon Judah.

Jewish interpretation

Psalm 137 is understood as a communal lament situated in the immediate aftermath of the Babylonian conquest of Judah (586 BCE). It captures the raw grief of the Jewish exiles sitting by the Mesopotamian waterways, structurally weeping and refusing to perform sacred Temple music outside the Land of Israel. The psalm pivots from profound grief and displacement (vv. 1-4) to a fierce, self-imprecatory oath of eternal loyalty to Jerusalem (vv. 5-6), and concludes with a visceral plea for divine retribution against Edom, who cheered the destruction, and Babylon, the destroyer (vv. 7-9).

Latter-day Saint

Psalm 137 is an exilic lament. The psalmist describes the Israelites mourning by the rivers of Babylon (v. 1), hanging up their harps (v. 2), and refusing their captors' mocking demands to sing the sacred songs of Zion (vv. 3-4). The psalmist makes a self-imprecatory oath to never forget Jerusalem (vv. 5-6) and concludes with harsh imprecations calling for divine vengeance against Edom and Babylon for their roles in Jerusalem's destruction (vv. 7-9).

Jehovah's Witnesses

The psalm captures the profound grief of the Jewish exiles sitting by the rivers of Babylon (verse 1). They refuse to play their harps or sing the songs of Jehovah to entertain their captors, viewing it as inappropriate in a foreign land (verses 2-4). The psalmist makes a solemn vow of unwavering loyalty to Jerusalem, elevating it above any personal joy (verses 5-6). The psalm concludes with a petition for Jehovah to remember Edom's treachery during Jerusalem's fall (verse 7) and a prophetic declaration of the total, violent destruction awaiting Babylon and her offspring (verses 8-9).

Mga piniling salin na ginawa ng NCB (27)
  • v1: "also" — Renders the additive particle gam accurately without archaic or overly conversational glosses.
  • v1: "remembered" — Establishes the central thematic motif of memory anchoring verses 5, 6, and 7.
  • v2: "poplars" — Identifies the tree botanically as Euphrates poplars according to scholarly consensus.
  • v2: "lyres" — Accurately identifies the ancient kinnor as a lyre.
  • v2: "in her midst" — Preserves the feminine singular suffix referring back to Babylon.
  • v3: "our captors" — Translates the active participle concisely.
  • v3: "words of a song" — Preserves the construct phrase exactly.
  • v3: "from a song" — Preserves the partitive mem prefix.
  • v3: "song... Sing... song" — Maintains the triple use of the cognate root sh-y-r.
  • v4: "can" — Expresses modal ability or possibility in contemporary English without archaic forms.
  • v4: "sing the song of the LORD" — Preserves the figura etymologica directly.
  • v4: "of the LORD" — Follows the mandatory divine-name map for YHWH.
  • v4: "foreign soil" — Translates admat precisely as soil or ground, contrasting with eretz.
  • v5: "forget" — Retains the Masoretic Text reading over conjectural emendation, preserving the direct wordplay with the preceding 'forget'.
  • v5: "forget" — Refuses to supply an unwritten object to maintain the harsh, abrupt stop of the absolute verb.
  • v6: "if I do not... if I do not" — Structures the verse firmly with the dual negative condition.
  • v6: "above my highest joy" — Renders the idiom naturally while keeping the spatial sense of elevation.
  • v6: "raise" — Reflects the literal spatial metaphor of the Hiphil verb 'cause to ascend'.
  • v7: "LORD" — Follows the mandatory divine-name map for YHWH.
  • v7: "sons" — Accurately translates the masculine plural construct in this patriarchal and martial context.
  • v7: "her" — Preserves the feminine singular suffix referencing Jerusalem.
  • v7: "Raze it! Raze it!" — Preserves the urgent repeated imperative.
  • v8: "the devastated one" — Translates the passive participle literally rather than interpolating a prophetic future.
  • v8: "repays you your dealing that you dealt to us" — Preserves the dense noun/verb cognate pairing of g-m-l.
  • v8: "happy" — Renders 'ashrey' consistently across verses 8 and 9, preserving the refrain structure.
  • v8: "Daughter of Babylon" — Maintains the alliteration of 'bat bavel'.
  • v9: "rock" — Translates the singular noun accurately.
Mga limitasyong dapat malaman
  • This is AI-generated and source-grounded, and it is approved by no community that holds these traditions.
  • The readings were produced in isolated calls that do not see one another. Isolation prevents anchoring; it does not make them independent witnesses.
  • The Nicene-Trinitarian boundary, and the decision not to seat non-denominational Evangelicalism separately (it is a cross-traditional movement already present within several voting profiles), are editorial choices.
  • The roster, the grouping into three families, and the rule that families (not seat counts) carry consensus all shape the result. A different roster would produce a different synthesis.
  • One profile cannot exhaust a tradition; the synthesis reflects what the profiles said, not everything the traditions hold.
  • The non-voting panels (Academic, Jewish) never vote; LDS and Jehovah's Witness readings are a comparative appendix only.
  • Any profiles excluded for this chapter after failing the audit are named on the page and removed from the eligible roster for it.
  • The rendering is unreviewed by any tradition, and every contested wording it settled is listed in Choices Made — where the text forced a decision, the decision is documented rather than hidden behind a claim of preserved ambiguity.

Tingnan ang buong step-by-step na proseso → · AI-generated noong Oct 12, 2026, gemini-3.1-pro-preview (high thinking) — every stage, v4 spec + Addendum B (claim-audited, cross-stage-checked)