By the rivers of Babylon,
there we sat down, yes, there we cried
when we remembered Zion.
On the poplars in that country we hung up our lyres.
For there our captors demanded of us words of a song,
those who harangued us words of joy:
"Sing for us one of the songs of Zion!"
How could we sing the song of Yahweh in a foreign land?
If I forget you, Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget [its strength].
Let my tongue stick to my palate
if I do not remember you,
if I do not make Jerusalem mount to the peak of my joy.
Remember, Yahweh, to the disadvantage of the Edomites the day of Jerusalem--
When they said, "Raze it, raze it, down to its foundations!"
Daughter Babylon, you devastator!
How to be emulated are those who will requite to you what you requited to us.
How to be emulated are those who will seize your sucklings and smash them on the rock (Sela, 2 Kgs 14:7).
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Lest we forget the context of this psalm:
On the day that strangers carried off his wealth, and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you [Edom] were like one of them. You should not have gloated over his disaster in the day of his calamity; you should not have looted his goods. You should not have delivered up his survivors in the day of distress. Obadiah 11-14
Are you better than Thebes? Yet she was carried away, she went into captivity; her little ones were dashed in pieces at the head of every street. Nah 3:8, 10
And ponder both letters of Jeremiah to the exiles:
Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the peace of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to Yahweh on its behalf, for in its peace you will find your peace. Jer 29:5-7
When you [Seraiah] finish reading this book, bind a stone to it, and cast it into the middle of the Euphrates, and say, "Thus shall Babylon sink, to rise no more." Jer 51:63-64
© Ralph W. Klein
December 11, 2000