Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 137:8
O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy [shall he be], that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.
8. O daughter of Babylon ] The city of Babylon personified.
who art to be destroyed ] The most obvious translation is that of R.V. marg., that art laid waste. So Aq. and Jerome, vastata. But the following clauses apparently imply that Babylon has not been destroyed, and the participle may be ‘prophetic,’ that art doomed to be laid waste [84] . Delitzsch quotes examples of a similar idiom in Arabic. ‘The stricken one,’=‘one who is doomed to be stricken.’ So Theodotion, . Some of the Ancient Versions, however (Symm., Syr., Targ.), render thou waster, a rendering which only requires a slight change of the text, and is adopted by many critics.
[84] Coverdale and the Great Bible of 1539 have, thou shalt come to misery thy self, from Zrich Bible, und du Babel, wirst auch ellend werden. The P.B.V. wasted with misery, from the Great Bible of 1540, may have been suggested by Mnster’s devastata and the Vulg. misera.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
O daughter of Babylon – That is, Babylon itself; the city of Babylon. On the word daughter as thus used, see the notes at Isa 1:8.
Who art to be destroyed – Certainly to be destroyed; of whose destruction there are fixed and absolute prophecies. See the notes at Isa 13:19-22.
Happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us – Margin, that recompenseth unto thee thy deed which thou didst to us. Literally, Happy shall he be who shall repay to thee the recompence which thou hast recompensed unto us. The idea is, who shall repay thee for thy treatment of us; or, as we should say in common language, Who shall pay thee back? That is, he will be esteemed a fortunate man who is made the instrument of inflicting deserved punishment on a city so guilty and so cruel. He will acquire fame and honor by doing it; his name will be made known abroad and perpetuated among people. In fact, the name of Cyrus, who conquered Babylon, is among the names of the most celebrated of conquerors; and the manner in which he took Babylon and overthrew the government and kingdom, has given him a most eminent place among successful princes and conquerors.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 8. O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed] Or, O thou daughter of Babylon the destroyer, or, who art to be ruined. In being reduced under the empire of the Persians, Babylon was already greatly humbled and brought low from what it was in the days of Nebuchadnezzar; but it was afterwards so totally ruined that not a vestige of it remains. After its capture by Cyrus, A.M. 3468, it could never be considered a capital city; but it appeared to follow the fortunes of its various conquerors till it was, as a city, finally destroyed.
Rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.] This was Cyrus, who was chosen of God to do this work, and is therefore called happy, as being God’s agent in its destruction. Greater desolations were afterwards brought upon it by Darius Hystaspes, who took this city after it had revolted, and slaughtered the inhabitants, men and women, in a barbarous manner. Herod. lib. iii.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Daughter of Babylon; by which he understands the city and empire of Babylon, and the people thereof.
Who art to be destroyed; who art by Gods righteous and irrevocable sentence devoted to certain destruction.
Happy shall he be; as being Gods instrument to vindicate his honour, and execute his just judgments, and fulfil his counsel and word; which Cyrus was to his own great glory and advantage, as appears both from sacred and profane history.
That rewardeth thee as thou hast served us; that shall use thee with equal cruelty.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. daughter of Babylonthepeople (Ps 9:13). Theirdestruction had been abundantly foretold (Isa 13:14;Jer 51:23). For the terriblenessof that destruction, God’s righteous judgment, and not the passionsof the chafed Israelites, was responsible.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed,…. By the determinate counsel and decree of God, and according to divine predictions; see Jer 50:1; so mystical Babylon, antichrist, and the man of sin, who therefore is called the son of perdition, 2Th 2:3; because appointed to destruction, and shall certainly go into it,
Re 17:8; or “O thou destroyer”, as the Targum, which paraphrases it thus,
“Gabriel, the prince of Zion, said to the Babylonish nation that spoileth or destroyeth;”
which is true of literal Babylon, called the destroying mountain,
Jer 51:25; and of mystical Babylon, the destroyer both of the bodies and souls of men, Re 11:18;
happy [shall he be] that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us; meaning Darius the Mede, as Kimchi; or rather, or however who must be added, Cyrus the Persian, as R. Obadiah; who were ordered by the Lord to retaliate her, and do as she had done to others, Jer 50:15; and in so doing pronounced happy, being the Lord’s shepherd, raised up in righteousness to perform his pleasure, Isa 44:28; and here wished success by the godly Jews. In like manner the Christian princes will reward mystical Babylon, and be the happy instruments of her ruin,
Re 18:6.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
8. O daughter of Babylon (187) laid waste! The Psalmist discerns the coming judgment of God, though not yet apparent, by the eye of faith, as the Apostle well calls faith “the beholding of things not seen.” (Heb 11:1.) Incredible as it might appear that any calamity should overtake so mighty an empire as Babylon then was, and impregnable as it was generally considered to be, he sees in the glass of the Word its destruction and overthrow. He calls upon all God’s people to do the same, and by faith from the elevation of heaven’s oracles, to despise the pride of that abandoned city. If the divine promises inspire us with hope and confidence, and God’s Spirit attemper our afflictions to the rule of his own uprightness, we shall lift up our heads in the lowest depths of affliction to which we may be east down, and glory in the fact that it is well with us in our worst distresses, and that our enemies are devoted to destruction. In declaring those to be happy who should pay back vengeance upon the Babylonians, he does not mean that the service done by the Medes and Persians, in itself met with the approbation of God; (188) for they were actuated in the war by ambition, insatiable covetousness, and unprincipled rivalry; but he declares that a war which was carried on in a manner under God’s auspices, should be crowned with success. As God had determined to punish Babylon, he pronounced a blessing upon Cyrus and Darius, while on the other hand Jeremiah (Jer 48:10) declares those cursed who should do the work of the Lord negligently, that is, fail in strenuously carrying out the work of desolation and destruction, to which God had called them as his hired executioners. It may seem to savor of cruelty, that he should wish the tender and innocent infants to be dashed and mangled upon the stones, but he does not speak under the impulse of personal feeling, and only employs words which God had himself authorized, so that this is but the declaration of a just judgment, as when our Lord says,
“
With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” (Mat 7:2.)
Isaiah (Isa 13:16) had issued a special prediction in reference to Babylon, which the Psalmist has doubtless here in his eye — “Behold God has sharpened the iron, and bent the bows; he sends forth the Medes and Persians, which shall not regard silver and gold; they shall thirst for blood only,” etc.
(187) Daughter of Babylon denotes the inhabitants of the Babylonish empire. The inhabitants of a city or kingdom are frequently spoken of in Scripture as its daughter. (See Psa 45:13; Isa 47:1; Zec 9:9.)
(188) “ Il n’entend pas que le service des Perses et Medes ait este agreable a Dieu,” etc. — Fr.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(8) Daughter of Babyloni.e., Babylon itself. (See Psa. 9:14, Note.)
Who art to be destroyed.Considerable doubt attaches to the meaning of the Hebrew word here. Our version is that of Theodotion. Aquila and Jerome have wasted (comp. Prayer Book version); Symmachus, robber; the LXX. and Vulg., wretched.
As pointed, the word is a passive participle, and must be rendered as by Aquila, wasted or destroyed, but with the recollection that a Hebrew would thus speak proleptically of a doom foreseen though not accomplished. Delitzsch quotes an Arab saying: Pursue the caught one i.e., sure to be caught.
The luxury of revenge is well expressed in this beatitude, pronounced on him who can carry out to all its bitter end the lex talionis. Commentators have in turn tried to disguise and justify the expression of passion. Happily the Bible allows us to see men as they were without taking their rules of feeling and conduct as ours. The psalm is beautiful as a poemthe Christian must seek his inspiration elsewhere.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8. Daughter of Babylon A periphrasis for Babylonians, or the metropolitan cities of the empire. Who art to be destroyed. It is not certain whether the word “destroyed,” which is a passive participle, denotes indefinite future or an event impending, and in process of accomplishment. Gesenius: “ Soon to be destroyed, or perhaps we may regard the city as captured by Cyrus.” Furst:” Overtaken by violence.” Delitzsch: “ Wasted one.” Septuagint and Vulgate: “ Wretched.” Jerome:
“ Vastata.” The language is prophetic, and seems based upon such passages as Isa 13:19-22; Isaiah 21:9, 10, 47, which see. The scene of Babylon’s catastrophe opened soon after the date of the psalm. Cyrus took Babylon B.C. 539, and removed the capital to Susa, on the eastern bank of the Choaspes, about forty miles southeasterly from Babylon, and left the city a province of the empire. Darius Hystaspes re-subjugated the revolted Babylonians twenty-three years after, removed the gates of the city, broke down its walls to one fourth their height, crucified 3,000 of its nobility, and left the city greatly humbled. In the beginning of the Christian era, Strabo says, “The vast city is a vast desert.”
Rewardeth thee as thou hast served us This is simply even justice, a vengeance yet to be literally inflicted on mystic Babylon (Antichrist) by eternal justice. See Rev 18:6, where this same sentiment is advanced.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 137:8-9. O daughter of Babylon, &c. O daughter of Babylon, the destroyed; [not Babylon the proud, as she now is; but Babylon the destroyed, for so she certainly shall be, when it comes to her turn;] How happy he that shall, &c. The sense is, “God will give a prosperous success to the Persians and Medes, against the Babylonians or Chaldeans.” See Jer 9:26. Isa 13:19; Isa 13:22. It has been objected, that the imprecations in these verses against Babylon do not well comport with God’s directions to his captive people to pray for the peace of Babylon. Jer 29:7. But here we must distinguish between the ordinary rule of practice and the extraordinary commissions given to prophets: The Psalmist was a prophet, and wrote by the special direction of the Holy Spirit; while the common people of Israel, and prophets also in their private capacity, were to follow the ordinary rule of praying for those very enemies whose destruction was coming on, but in God’s own time. In the mean while the safety of the Jewish captives depended upon the safety of Babylon, and was wrapped up in it; and so it concerned them both in point of duty and interest to submit peaceably and quietly to their new masters, and to pray for their prosperity: notwithstanding all which, they might justly hope for a deliverance at the seventy years’ end; and God might instruct his prophets to declare it before-hand, together with the manner of it. Isaiah had prophesied of the destruction of Babylon above 150 years before, and in terms not unlike what we find in this psalm. He had said, chap. Isa 13:16. Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes. The Psalmist further adds, that the instrument under God in punishing Babylon shall be happy; shall be blessed, and praised in his deed; as having done a glorious work in executing the divine justice upon her, and at the same time rescuing and delivering the people of God. This prophecy or denunciation was fulfilled, as we remarked, by the Medes and Persians, under the conduct of Cyrus the servant and chosen of God: and now what harm could there be in the Psalmist’s presignifying in a pathetic style these high and marvellous things?
Certainly the ordinary rule to go by is, Bless, and curse not; a rule so sacred, that men are effectually tied up from all cursings of their own; and have no power left in that case, except it be to declare God’s curses, and those general only, or in the very words of Scripture. See Num 23:8. As to any thing more special, God seems to have reserved it to his own special directions; which have ceased long ago, ever since prophesies have ceased. See Waterland’s Script. Vind. part 3: p. 28.
REFLECTIONS.1st, This psalm is the composition of a mournful muse; and while we meditate thereon, scarcely can the sympathetic heart forbear to mingle her tears with those of the afflicted captives. We have,
1. Their mournful condition. By the rivers of Babylon, far from the gates of Zion, under a heavy yoke, either employed in servile labours near these streams, or stealing thither sadly to muse on their wretched state, we sat down, yea we wept, indulging their melancholy reflections, and swelling the torrent with their tears, when we remembered thee, O Zion; Zion, Zion, arose before their eyes, her palaces in smoky ruins lay, her temple in heaps, her altars overturned, her sacrifices ceased, and sullen silence reigned in the once-thronged gates: such desolations pierced their hearts with anguish, while deep reflection on their sins, the cause of all, called forth still bitterer sorrows; their instruments of music on willows hung neglected by, their hearts untuned, their harps unstrung, and all their songs turned into sighs and groans.
2. Their oppressors insulted over them; not content with plundering their substance, and enslaving their persons, they required songs from their heavy hearts; and, scoffing at the songs of Zion, would turn these sacred services into profane mirth. Note; (1.) It is doubly cruel to insult the afflicted. (2.) The songs of Zion have often been the butt of scoffers’ wit; but God is not mocked, he is jealous and avengeth.
3. Their reply. How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? These sacred songs ill-suited the company of the profane; nor ought these holy things to be given to dogs; better exasperate their masters by a refusal, than anger their God by sinful compliance.
4. Their rooted affection to Jerusalem. Deeply engraven on their hearts, nor time, nor distance, banished the loved image from their thoughts; they longed to be there, they hoped the time was near, and ceaseless thitherward directed their faces and their prayers; they preferred it to their chief joy; all personal prosperity and comfort were nothing so near or dear to them as the interest of Zion: much rather therefore did they wish to forget their skill in music, or that their withered arm might shrink, and their tongue cleave to the roof of their mouth, than forget the city of their solemnities, cease to remember her with honour and delight, or dare by base compliances to entertain the sons of Babylon, or serve their gods, with Zion’s sacred music. Note; (1.) The interests of Christ’s church and kingdom will be ever dearer to his people than their own. (2.) When the path of duty is clear, however dangerous, we are called to steadfast adherence to it; better lose our limbs or life than lose our souls.
2nd, Not revenge, but zeal for God’s glory, dictates these desires.
1. Edom’s malice in the day of Jerusalem’s affliction was cruel; they sharpened the Chaldeans’ fury, and wished them to rase the city and temple to their foundations: for this, a complaint is lodged against them with that God who is the avenger of his people’s wrongs, and they shall not go unpunished. The persecutors of God’s people will assuredly be reckoned with, and every hard speech against them be remembered in the day of recompence.
2. The doom of Babylon is read. O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; such is the divine decree, and nothing can prevent its execution: happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us; as Cyrus did, when, executing the counsels of God, he entered that devoted city, and retaliated on them the cruelty they had shewn their captives. Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth the little ones against the stones; and as Babylon thus fell of old, Babylon mystical shall meet the same destruction from the righteous judgment of God, and all antichristian oppressors of God’s church and people sink as a millstone cast into the sea, and never rise up again.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 137:8 O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy [shall he be], that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.
Ver. 8. That art to be destroyed ] Spoliatrix, saith the Syriac, Isa 33:1 .
Happy shall he be
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
to be destroyed. Hezekiah must have been familiar with Isaiah’s prophecies, who employs the very words of verses: Psa 137:8, Psa 137:9. (Isa 13:6, Isa 13:16-18; Isa 21:9; Isa 47:14, Isa 47:15. Compare Nah 3:10.)
Happy. See App-63. for the Beatitudes of the Psalms.
rewardeth. See notes above, which show that the “post-exilic” assumption involves insuperable difficulties if this Psalm is sundered from the contemporary prophecies of Isaiah (especially Psa 13:1-14; Psa 13:27), and from a Babylon under Assyrian rule.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
daughter: Isa 47:1-5, Jer 50:42, Jer 51:33, Zec 2:7
who art: Isa 13:1-22, Isa 14:4-24, Isa 21:1, Isa 47:1, Jer 25:12-14, Jer 50:1 – Jer 51:64, Rev 14:8-11, Rev 17:1-18, Rev 18:6
destroyed: Heb. wasted
happy: Psa 149:6-9, Isa 13:3-5, Isa 44:28, Rev 17:5, Rev 17:6, Rev 17:14, Rev 18:6, Rev 18:20
rewardeth: etc. Heb. recompenseth unto thee thy deed which thou didst unto us, Jer 50:15-29, Rev 18:6
Reciprocal: Num 31:15 – General Jos 6:21 – utterly 2Ki 8:12 – dash 2Ki 19:21 – the daughter Ezr 6:12 – destroy Est 8:11 – to destroy Psa 48:11 – because Psa 54:5 – reward Psa 87:4 – Babylon Psa 109:12 – favour Psa 149:7 – General Psa 149:9 – to execute Isa 13:16 – children Isa 14:20 – the seed Isa 47:3 – I will take Jer 25:14 – I Jer 27:7 – until Jer 30:16 – General Jer 46:24 – daughter Jer 50:29 – recompense Jer 51:24 – General Jer 51:35 – The violence Jer 51:49 – As Babylon Jer 51:56 – the Lord Lam 1:21 – they shall Hos 13:16 – their infants Oba 1:15 – as Mic 7:10 – she that Nah 3:10 – her young Hab 2:8 – the violence Hab 2:17 – because Mat 7:2 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 137:8-9. O daughter of Babylon By which he understands the city and empire of Babylon, and the people thereof, who art to be destroyed Who by Gods righteous and irrevocable sentence, art devoted to certain destruction, and whose destruction is particularly and circumstantially foretold by Gods holy prophets. For the subject of these two verses is the same with that of many chapters in Isaiah and Jeremiah; namely, the vengeance of Heaven executed upon Babylon by Cyrus, raised up to be king of the Medes and Persians for that purpose. Happy shall he be He shall be blessed and praised in his deed, as having done a glorious work in executing the divine justice upon Babylon, and at the same time, as an instrument in Gods hand, rescuing and delivering the people of God. Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones, &c. That retaliates upon thee the calamities thou didst bring upon us. It has been objected, that the imprecations, in these verses, against Babylon, do not well comport with Gods directions to his captive people, Jer 29:7, to pray for the peace of Babylon. But here we must distinguish between the ordinary rule of practice and the extraordinary commission given to prophets. The psalmist was a prophet, and wrote by the special direction of the Holy Spirit; while the common people of Israel, and prophets also, in their private capacity, were to follow the ordinary rule of praying for those very enemies whose destruction was coming on, but in Gods own time. In the meanwhile the safety of the Jewish captives depended on the safety of Babylon, and was wrapped up in it; and so it concerned them, both in point of duty and interest, to submit peaceably and quietly to their new masters, and to pray for their prosperity: notwithstanding all which, they might justly hope for a deliverance at the seventy years end, and God might instruct his prophets to declare it before hand, together with the manner of it: see Waterlands Script. Vind., part 3. page 28. The meaning of the words, happy shall he be, says Dr. Horne, is, He shall go on and prosper, for the Lord of hosts shall go with him, and fight his battles against the enemy and oppressor of his people, empowering him to recompense upon the Chaldeans the works of their hands, and to reward them as they served Israel. The slaughter of the very infants, mentioned in the last verse, is expressly predicted by Isa 13:16; Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished. The destruction was to be universal, sparing neither sex nor age. Terrible, but just, are thy judgments, O Lord! The fall of the mystical Babylon is described Revelation 18. in terms and phrases borrowed from this and other prophecies, relating primarily to the ancient city called by that name. Whoever will carefully read over the chapter referred to, with the three subsequent ones, concerning the triumph of Messiah, and the glory of the new Jerusalem, will be able to form proper ideas of the world and the church, and will know where to choose his portion.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
He also prayed that the Babylonians would experience destruction similar to the one they had inflicted on the Israelites (cf. Isa 13:16). Evidently during the destruction of Jerusalem, the Babylonian soldiers mercilessly killed young Jewish children. Psa 137:8 a should read, "O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction" (NIV). God had promised to curse those who cursed Abraham’s descendants (Gen 12:3). From the viewpoint of the victors over Babylon, the Persians, the fall of Babylon would be a blessing.
"It is an act of profound faith to entrust one’s most precious hatreds to God, knowing they will be taken seriously." [Note: Brueggemann, p. 77.]
Believers who experience God’s discipline for their sins may feel great sorrow. Sometimes discipline cuts us off from the blessings of corporate worship and the joy it brings. It is always appropriate to ask God to remain faithful to His promises.