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Psalm 137:2-4
New Catholic Bible
Psalm 137:2-4
New Catholic Bible
2 [a]There on the poplars
we hung up our harps.
3 For it was there that our captors
asked us to sing them a song,
and, tormenting us, demanded a joyful song:
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion.”
4 But how could we sing songs of the Lord
while living in a foreign land?[b]
Footnotes
- Psalm 137:2 The exiles were tauntingly requested to sing the songs of Zion on their harps. The taunts were tantamount to the question “Where is your God?” (Pss 42:4, 11; 79:10; 115:2), and might have concerned the “songs of Zion” that celebrated the Lord’s majesty and protection (see Pss 46; 48; 76; 84; 87; 122).
- Psalm 137:4 The exiles could not bring themselves to sing any of the holy songs while they rested on foreign, unclean soil; that would be a profanation (see Hos 9:3; Am 7:17).
