By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Water courses were abundant in Babylon, wherein were not only natural streams but artificial canals: it was place of broad rivers and streams.

We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. The drooping branches appeared to weep as we did, and so we gave to them our instruments of music; the willows could as well make melody as we, for we had no mind for minstrelsy.

For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song. It was ill to be a singer at all when it was demanded that this talent should go into bondage to an oppressor's will. Better be dumb than be forced to please an enemy with forced song.

St. John Chrysostom observes the improvement such tribulation effected in the Jews, who previously derided, nay, even put to death, some of the prophets; but now that they were captives in a foreign land, they would not attempt to expose their sacred hymns to the ridicule of the Gentiles.—Robert…

How shall we sing the LORD's song in a strange land How shall they sing at all? sing in a strange land? sing Jehovah's song among the uncircumcised? No, that must not be; it shall not be. With one voice they refuse, but the refusal is humbly worded by being put in the form of a question.

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. To sing Zion's songs for the pleasure of Zion's foes, would be to forget the Holy City Each Jew declares for himself that he will not do this; for the pronoun alters from "we" to "I." Individually the captives pledge themselves to…

If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. Thus the singers imprecate eternal silence upon their mouths if they forget Jerusalem to gratify Babylon.

Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem. The case is left in Jehovah's hands. He is a God of recompenses, and will deal out justice with impartiality.

O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed. Or the destroyer: let us accept the word either way, or both ways: the destroyer would be destroyed, and the Psalmist in vision saw her as already destroyed. It is usual to speak of a city as a virgin daughter.

Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones. Fierce was the heart of the Jew who had seen his beloved city the scene of such terrific butchery. His heart pronounced like sentence upon Babylon. She should be scourged with her own whip of wire.

By the rivers of Babylon. The canals of Babylon itself, probably (comp. Ps 137:2.)—William Kay. By the rivers. Euphrates, Tigris, Chaboras, etc., and the canals which intersected the country.

"Our harps." Many singers were carried captives: Ezr 2:41. These would of course carry thier instruments with them, and be insulted, as here. Their songs were sacred, and unfit to be sung before idolaters.—From "Anonymous Notes" in James Merrick's Annotations, 1768.

"They that carried us away captive required of us a song; " or rather, as it should be rendered, "the words of a song." They see no inconsistancy in a religion which freely mixes with the world. In their ignorance they only require "the words of a song; "its heavenly strain they have never caught.

How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? Now, is it not true that, in many senses, we, like the Jewish exiles, have to sing the Lord's song in a strange land? If not a land strange to us, then, all the more strange to it—a land foreign, so to say, and alien to the Lord's song.

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem. Calvary, Mount of Olives, Siloam, how fragrant are ye with the Name that is above every name! "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem!" Can I forget where he walked so often, where he spake such gracious words, where he died? Can I forget that his feet shall stand on that…

If I do not remember thee. Either our beds are soft, or our hearts hard, that can rest when the church is at unrest, that feel not our brethren's hard cords through our soft beds.—John Trapp. If I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.

Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom, etc. The Jews were their brethren: Ob 1:10 Am 1:11. They were their neighbours, Idumea and Judea bordered upon one another: Mr 3:8.

O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed. In the beginning of the fifth year of Darius happened the revolt of the Babylonians which cost him the trouble of a tedious siege again to reduce them...he besieged the city with all his forces...As soon as the Babylonians saw themselves be girt by…

Happy shall he be that taketh, etc. 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…