Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 137:9
Happy [shall he be], that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.
9. The barbarous customs of Oriental warfare spared neither women nor children in a war of extermination. Cp. Isa 13:16; Hos 10:14; Hos 13:16; Nah 3:10; 2Ki 8:12; Hom. Il. xxii. 63. The stern law of retaliation demanded that Babylon should be treated as she had treated Jerusalem. Cp. Isa 47:1-9; Jer 51:24; Jer 51:56.
the stones ] The rock or crag.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Happy shall he be that taketh … – Margin, as in Hebrew, rock. This refers to what was not uncommon in ancient warfare, as it is now among savage tribes – the indiscriminate slaughter of those of all ages, and of both sexes, in war. It was expressly foretold of Babylon that this would occur (see Isa 13:16, and the notes at that place), and there may be a reference here to that prediction, and the psalmist may mean to say that the man would be accounted happy, or would be happy, who wreaked vengeance on Babylon in carrying out that prophecy. The idea is, This will certainly occur, for it is foretold, and happy or fortunate will he be who is the instrument in fulfilling it. Compare 2Ki 8:12; Nah 3:10; Hos 13:16. See also Homer, II xxii. 63,373, following It is impossible to reconcile such barbarous customs with the idex of honorable war, or with the principles of war as carried on among civilized nations now.
It should be added, however, that there is much – very much – that is practiced in war by civilized nations still, which it is equally impossible to reconcile with any just notions of morality or humanity, and which in coming ages, and when people shall come to view things aright, will seem to the people of those times to be not less monstrous, strange, and barbarous. In regard to this passage, we are not necessarily to suppose that the author of the psalm approved of this, or desired it, or prayed for it. He looked forward to the fulfillment of a prediction; he saw that a just and terrible judgment would certainly come upon Babylon; he expressed that in the common language of the times, and states the manner in which it would occur; he described the feelings – the gratification – of those who would execute the divine purpose in the overthrow of Babylon; he referred to the estimate in which the conqueror would be held by people, and the glory of the achievement as giving him fame among people.
It must be admitted that the feelings of the author of the psalm appear to accord with this; that he considers it proper that the city should be destroyed; and that he regards its overthrow as a righteous judgment, and as a thing to be desired in the divine administration. It is true that he might approve of such an overthrow, and see it to be right – he might describe the feelings of those by whom it would be done, their joy, their exultation, and even their barbarity, without himself approving of their barbarity, or sympathizing with their feelings, or partaking of their spirit; but still it cannot in fairness be denied that there is an apparent approval of the act here referred to, which savors more of imprecation than forgiveness, and which is apparently prompted more by the spirit of revenge than by a desire of just punishment. On this subject, however, see the General Introduction, Section 6 (4); and the notes at Psa 109:10. A correct record may be made, whether of facts or of feelings, without any design of expressing either approbation or disapprobation on the part of the historian, the prophet, or the poet.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 9. Happy – that taketh and dasheth thy little ones] That is, So oppressive hast thou been to all under thy domination, as to become universally hated and detested; so that those who may have the last hand in thy destruction, and the total extermination of thy inhabitants, shall be reputed happy – shall be celebrated and extolled as those who have rid the world of a curse so grievous. These prophetic declarations contain no excitement to any person or persons to commit acts of cruelty and barbarity; but are simply declarative of what would take place in the order of the retributive providence and justice of God, and the general opinion that should in consequence be expressed on the subject; therefore praying for the destruction of our enemies is totally out of the question. It should not be omitted that the Chaldee considers this Psalm a dialogue, which it thus divides: – The three first verses are supposed to have been spoken by the psalmist, By the rivers, c. The Levites answer from the porch of the temple, in Ps 137:4, How shall we sing, c. The voice of the Holy Spirit responds in Ps 137:5-6, If I forget thee, c. Michael, the prince of Jerusalem, answers in Ps 137:7, Remember, O Lord, &c. Gabriel, the prince of Zion, then addresses the destroyer of the Babylonish nation, in Ps 137:8-9, Happy shall be he that rewardeth thee, c. To slay all when a city was sacked, both male and female, old and young, was a common practice in ancient times. Homer describes this in words almost similar to those of the psalmist: –
‘ , ,
,
,
.
Il. lib. xxii., ver. 62.
My heroes slain, my bridal bed o’erturned
My daughters ravished, and my city burned:
My bleeding infants dashed against the floor
These I have yet to see; perhaps yet more.
POPE.
These excesses were common in all barbarous nations, and are only prophetically declared here. He shall be reputed happy, prosperous, and highly commendable, who shall destroy Babylon.
ANALYSIS OF THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SEVENTH PSALM
When this Psalm was composed, the Jews were in captivity in Babylon, far from their own country, the temple, and the public exercises of religion; and the scoff and scorn of their enemies; and they contrast what they were with what they are. This Psalm has two parts: –
I. The complaint of Israel. Because of the insults of the Babylonians, they deplore their sad condition, long for the temple, and their return to Jerusalem, Ps 137:1-7.
II. An imprecation or prayer for vengeance, on their persecutors, Ps 137:7-9.
I. Their complaint arises from their captivity, and it is aggravated. –
1. From the place, Babylon: “By the rivers of Babylon.” A place far from their country; who were aliens from the covenant made by God with Abraham, scorners of their religion, had laid waste their city and forced them to base and servile labour.
2. From the continuance of their captivity and misery: “There we sat down,” c. Took up the seats allotted to us, and that for seventy years.
3. From the effects it produced: “Yea, we wept,” &c.
4. From the cause which drew these tears. The remembrance of what they had enjoyed, (now lost,) the services of religion: “We wept when we remembered Zion,” &c.
5. From the intenseness of their grief, which was so great that they could not even tune their harps: “We hung our harps,” &c.
That which increased their grief was the joy their enemies manifested at it.
1. THERE, in a strange land, the place of our captivity.
2. “THEY that carried us away captive.”
3. “They required of us a song.” They quired of us mirth, saying,
4. O thou Jew or captive, come now, “sing us one of the songs of Zion.”
To this sarcasm the captive Jews return a double answer.
“How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” You are aliens, and this is a strange land we cannot sing God’s service there, which is destined to his honour, to you, or in this place without offending our God.
They reply by a protestation of their hope and constancy in religion, and accurse themselves if they do not continue in it.
1. “If I forget thee,” c. Forget the worship and feasts I kept there.
2. “If I do not remember thee,” &c. If I do not prefer and make mention of Jerusalem, then “let my tongue cleave,” &c. Let me no more have the use of that excellent organ of God’s glory. It would be unworthy of my religion, and a dishonour to my God to sing the songs of Zion thus circumstanced, and to scoffers and aliens.
II. This seems to be the sense of the first part of the Psalm. The second part has reference to the imprecations poured out against Edom and Babylon, both persecutors of God’s people. The Babylonians carried them away captive, and the Edomites persecuted their brethren with the sword, Am 1:12.
1. Against Edom.
(1) “Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom,” &c. How they carried themselves towards thy people on that day when thy anger smote against them, and the Babylonians carried us away.
(2) Remember how they added to our affliction, saying, “Rase it,” &c.
2. Against Babylon. To her he turns his speech by an apostrophe but at the same time foretells her ruin: “O daughter of Babylon,” c. Thou seemest to thyself to be most happy but thy ruin approaches. Shortly after, the Medes, led by Cyrus destroyed them.
(1) “Happy shall he be that rewardeth,” &c. [See the notes.]
(2) “Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones,” &c. [See the notes.]
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
As thou didst use our little ones. So this was but a just retaliation foretold here, as also Isa 13:6.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7-9. Remember . . . the children ofEdom(Compare Ps 132:1),that is, to punish.
the day of Jerusalemitsdownfall (Lam 4:21; Lam 4:22;Oba 1:11-13).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Happy [shall he be] that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones. That takes the infants from their mothers’ breasts, or out of their arms, and dashes out their brains against a “rock”, as the word k signifies; which, though it may seem a piece of cruelty, was but a just retaliation; the Babylonians having done the same to the Jewish children, and is foretold elsewhere should be done to theirs, Isa 13:16. Nor is this desired from a spirit of revenge, but for the glory of divine justice, and that such a generation of cruel creatures might be rooted out of the earth; see Re 2:2. Some allegorically understand this of crushing and mortifying the first motions of sin in the heart; but such a sense seems to have no place here.
k “ad petram”, V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, &c. “ad repem”, Cocceius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(9) Little ones.Literally, sucklings.
Stones.Better, cliff or rock.
For this feature of barbarous cruelty with which ancient war was cursed see 2Ki. 8:12; Isa. 13:16; Hos. 10:14, &c; and comp. Homer, Iliad, xxii. 63: My bleeding infants dashed against the floor.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9. Dasheth thy little ones The barbarity of this expression, which, however, is to be understood as predictive, must be considered in connexion with the customs of war in there ages, and the fact that it is only parallel to the previous expression, “rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.” It was simply retributive justice, according to the custom of the times, and was fulfilled by the Babylonians themselves, when, to save provision at the siege by Darius Hystaspes, just mentioned, they put to death all useless persons, including all women and children in the city, except one wife for each man, and her maid. All the prophets who have spoken of Babylon’s fall have mentioned her cruelty to the Hebrews, and the corresponding severity of her own doom. See Isaiah 47; Jeremiah 51; Lam 5:10-13: and of Edom, Jer 49:13-22; Lam 4:21-22, and Obadiah’s prophecy. On the Vindictive Psalms, see Psalms 109.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
REFLECTIONS
MY soul! canst thou behold the sorrows and miseries of Israel in their captivity, and not call to mind that more horrible vassalage and slavery in which sin and Satan bound thee for many a year? Did Israel weep by the waters of Babylon, and hang their harps upon the willows, under a sense of the bondage into which their rebellion and ingratitude had brought them; and canst thou forget the wormwood and the gall, when, in a state of unawakened nature, thou wast fast bound in the misery and iron of a captivity, from which none but the arm of Jehovah could have delivered thee? Apply this view of the Church’s history to thine own state and circumstances, in what is past, in what is now, and in which thou mayest be blessed in the review of it hereafter. Think what thou once wast, when like the Church in Babylon, the strong man armed kept the house, and thou wast the servant and bondsman of sin. See by whose grace and mercy it is that thou art brought out. Remember who it is that hath said, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. And call to mind to whose grace and finished salvation it must alone be ascribed, that the hopes of being brought home to the heavenly Jerusalem now arise, in looking forward to all the blessings of redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ. Hail, thou holy, thou gracious, thou almighty Saviour! Blessed Jesus! when the seventy years of the desolation of thy church and people are accomplished; when the Lord, who hath in his own glorious person finished the transgression, made an end of sins, made reconciliation for and brought in an everlasting righteousness, shall finally and fully turn the captivity of his redeemed; then, Lord, thou wilt call all thy people home, and plant them in thy holy mountain, even in heaven itself, which thou hast taken possession of in their name: and then shall all the Edomites, and the haters of the Lord, be driven from thy presence, while thy people shall rejoice before thee in everlasting hallelujahs, and endless happiness.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 137:9 Happy [shall he be], that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.
Ver. 9. That taketh and dasheth thy little ones ] So at the destruction of Troy (Horat. l. iv. Oba 1:6 ).
Sed palam captis gravis (heu nefas, heu)
Nescios fari pueros, Achivis
Ureret flammis, etiam latentes
Matris in alvo.
little ones. The reference is to Isa 13:16-18, which belongs to a Dispensation of Law and Judgment, and is not to be interpreted of the present Dispensation of Grace.
and dasheth: Isa 13:16, Hos 10:14, Hos 13:16
the stones: Heb. the rock
Reciprocal: Num 31:15 – General Jos 6:21 – utterly 2Ki 8:12 – dash Ezr 6:12 – destroy Psa 48:11 – because Psa 87:4 – Babylon Psa 109:12 – favour Psa 149:7 – General Isa 13:12 – General Isa 14:20 – the seed Isa 47:3 – I will take Jer 27:7 – until Jer 30:16 – General Jer 48:4 – her Jer 50:1 – against Babylon Jer 50:15 – as she Jer 50:29 – recompense Jer 50:42 – they are cruel Jer 51:3 – spare Jer 51:24 – General Jer 51:35 – The violence Jer 51:49 – As Babylon Lam 1:21 – they shall Mic 7:10 – she that
137:9 {h} Happy [shall he be], that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.
(h) He alludes to Isaiah’s prophecy in Isa 13:16 promising good success to Cyrus and Darius, whom ambition moved to fight against Babylon, but God used them as his rods to punish his enemies.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes