What does this bible verse mean: 8 Oh daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is he who repays you?

Question

....For what you have done to us 9 He who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.
Psalms 137:8-9

What is this?

Answer 1

Its a poem, written by some guy, expressing his feelings.

Answer 2

It is an exhortation to seek revenge! This is not a simple praise the Lord verse like so many believe. It was written as part of the effort to support the Jewish war against one of the tribes (the Edomites) that were not taken out of the area when the Babylonian Empire crushed the Jewish Kingdom in about 600 BC. It was written about 530 BC, at the beginning of the second Jewish kingdom, after the Tribe Judah returned from The Babylonian exile, when they were taking land back from the people who had settled on it.

Read the complete piece, not just individual verses.


Psalm 137
1 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.

2 There on the poplars
we hung our harps,

3 for there our captors asked us for songs,
our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
they said, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"

4 How can we sing the songs of the LORD
while in a foreign land?

5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget its skill .

6 May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you,
if I do not consider Jerusalem
my highest joy.

7 Remember, O LORD, what the Edomites did
on the day Jerusalem fell.
"Tear it down," they cried,
"tear it down to its foundations!"

8 O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction,
happy is he who repays you
for what you have done to us-

9 he who seizes your infants
and dashes them against the rocks.


Basically a "Kill them evil terrorists" speech. Propaganda of it's time.
The Edomite tribe is the "Daughter of Babylon" and it is the Tribe Judah that intends to do the baby killing!
The reference to the Edomite kingdom as the Daughter of Babylon should be clear. It is like calling the puppet governments run by the USA its children in the sense that it created them and gave them power. This poem is about payback but also about getting the royal house (Judah) back into power.

Answer 3

It's poetic hyperbole. The psalmist was expressing a sentiment of revenge against those who had conquered and exiled God's people. Children always represent the future, survival. The poet is using a dramatic image to wish the failure and destruction of a powerful enemy. It was a humanly possible act but not a very likely one.

Answer 4

Psa 137:8 -
O daughter of Babylon - That is, Babylon itself; the city of Babylon. On the word “daughter” as thus used, see the notes at Isa_1:8.
Who art to be destroyed - Certainly to be destroyed; of whose destruction there are fixed and absolute prophecies. See the notes at Isa_13:19-22.
Happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us - Margin, that recompenseth unto thee thy deed which thou didst to us. Literally, “Happy shall he be who shall repay to thee the recompence which thou hast recompensed unto us.” The idea is, who shall repay thee for thy treatment of us; or, as we should say in common language, “Who shall pay thee back?” That is, he will be esteemed a fortunate man who is made the instrument of inflicting deserved punishment on a city so guilty and so cruel. He will acquire fame and honor by doing it; his name will be made known abroad and perpetuated among people. In fact, the name of Cyrus, who conquered Babylon, is among the names of the most celebrated of conquerors; and the manner in which he took Babylon and overthrew the government and kingdom, has given him a most eminent place among successful princes and conquerors.

Answer 5

Whenever you see the word "Babylon" not specifically referencing the historical Babylon, it refers to any evil civilization of great power, wealth, and dominance in the world.

Therefore, when chaos and calamity strikes when God judges it- is just, good, and inevitable!

Answer 6

Well here is what I found from Yahoo Search using NIV .for the verses from above , here is what I have for the meaning: I hope that help.
Verse 8. O daughter of Babylon. Mention is made of daughters in many passages of the Word, and every one may see that in those passages are not meant daughters, as where mention is made of the daughter of Zion, of the daughter of Jerusalem, of the daughter of Tarshish, of the daughter of my people, denoting affections of good and of truth, as has been shown in the passages above adduced; and whereas they denote the affections of good and of truth, they denote also churches, for churches are churches by reason of those affections; hence it is that by the daughter of Zion is signified the celestial church, and this from the affection of good, whereas by the daughter of Jerusalem is signified the spiritual church, and this from the affection of truth, AC 2362; hence it is evident what is signified by the daughters of the nations, as by the daughters of the Philistines, the daughters of Egypt, the daughters of Tyre and Sidon, the daughters of Edom, the daughters of Moab, the daughters of the Chaldeans and of Babel, and the daughters of Sodom, namely the affections of what is evil and false, in which their religious principles were grounded, consequently the religious principles themselves; that this is the signification of daughter may appear from the following passages: "A people shall come from the north, put in array like a man to the battle, upon you O daughter of Babel," Jer 50:41, 42; so in Zechariah, "Deliver yourself O Zion, that dwell with the daughter of Babel," Zech 2:7; and in David, "The daughter of Babylon who are to be destroyed," Psalm 137:8; that in these passages, by daughters are not meant daughters, but affections which disagree with the truth, consequently reli-gious principles which are thence derived, every one may plainly see. AC 3024.

Verse 8. Blessed is he who deals with you, or recompenses you, as you have dealt with us. It is according to the literal sense that the whom they had seduced and destroyed were to recompense them, whereas according to the spiritual sense, they were to recompense themselves, because every evil carries along with it its own punishment; the case herein is similar to what is said in many parts of the Word, that god will recompense and take vengeance upon the injustice and injuries done to him, and will destroy the unjust out of anger and wrath, when nevertheless the evils themselves, which they have committed against god, do this, consequently they do it to themselves. AE 762.

Verse 9. Blessed is he who seizes your little ones, and dashes then against the rock. By little ones, or infants here are not understood infants, but falses springing up, for the subject there treated of is concerning Babylon, whereby are signified the falses of evil destroying the truths of good belonging to the church; the destruction thereof is signified by dashing them against the rock, the rock denoting the ruling false of evil, and to dash against denoting to destroy. They who abide in the literal sense of the Word, and think no further, may easily he induced to believe that he is called blessed who does thus with the children of his enemies, when, notwithstanding, this is an enormous crime; whereas it is hereby meant, that he is blessed who disperses the falses of evil springing up in the church, which are here signified by the infants of Babylon. AE 411.

I hope that helps.
TC & GB
† Kitty †

Answer 7

God likes killing babies?

Well that's what it looks like in the context you put it in. I'd hope that's not the actual message there. I'd have to see the whole story to know what it truly means.

Answer 8

When this verse was written Israel had just been conquered by the Babylonians, who did to them what they described.