Psalms 137:1

"Psalms."

Key Reflection

In the Babylonian exile, the psalmist and fellow exiles sat by the rivers of Babylon, a poignant reminder of their homeland. The act of weeping when they remembered Zion highlights both their longing for Jerusalem and the heartache of displacement, as this scene would have vividly evoked the sorrow and communal experience shared among the Jewish community under foreign rule.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

By the rivers of Babylon -The streams, the water-courses, the rivulets. There was properly only one river flowing through Babylon - the Euphrates; but the city was watered, as Damascus now is, by means of canals or water-courses cut from the main river, and conveying the water to different parts of the city. For a description of Babylon, see the introductory notes toIsaiah 13:0. If the reference here is to Babylon proper, or the city, the allusion would be to the Euphrates flowing through it; if to Babylonia, the allusion would be to the Euphrates, and the other rivers which watered the country, as the Tigris, the Chaboras, and the Ulai.

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