Psalm 137
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Psalm 137 (Greek numbering: Psalm 136) is one of the best known of the Biblical psalms. Its opening lines ("By the rivers of Babylon...") have been set to music on several occasions.
The psalm is a hymn expressing the yearnings of the Jewish people in exile following the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem in 586 BC. The rivers of Babylon are the Euphrates river, its tributaries, and the Chebar river. In its whole form, the psalm reflects the yearning for Jerusalem as well as hatred for the Holy City's enemies with sometimes violent imagery. Rabbinical sources attributed the poem to the prophet Jeremiah.[1]
The early lines of the poem are very well known, as they describe the sadness of the Israelites, asked to "sing the Lord's song in a foreign land". This they refuse to do, leaving their harps hanging on trees. The poem then turns into self-exhortation to remember Jerusalem. It ends with violent fantasies of revenge, delighting in the thought of smashing of Babylonian children against rocks.
Many musical settings censor the last verse. John Bell, a hymnwriter who writes many challenging texts himself, comments alongside his own setting of this Psalm: The final verse is omitted in this metricization, because its seemingly outrageous curse is better dealt with in preaching or group conversation. It should not be forgotten, especially by those who have never known exile, dispossession or the rape of people and land[2].
The hymn is included in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, where the opening words are translated as "by the waters of Babylon". In William Walton's oratorio Belshazzar's Feast this version of the opening section is set to music, as if sung by the Israelite captives in Babylon. Likewise, the psalm was the inspiration for the famous slave chorus "Va, pensiero" from Giuseppe Verdi's opera Nabucco.
Brent Dowe and Trevor McNaughton of The Melodians wrote a version of the psalm set to the music of Jamaica entitled "Rivers of Babylon." The most famous musical rendition of this song was by Boney M in the 1970s. Another version of the psalm was used in "On the Willows" from the Broadway musical Godspell.
Psalm 137 is the source of the title of Stephen Vincent Benet's short story By the Waters of Babylon.
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