Parents: Are you happy when you taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones?

Question

Psalms 137:9: Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.

Answer 1

ok normally I would love to joke with you, but you've taken this totally out of its context. If you simply read the verse before it, it totally makes sense:
8. O Daughter of Babylon, who is destined to be plundered, praiseworthy is he who repays you your recompense that you have done to us.
9. Praiseworthy is he who will take and dash your infants against the rock.

The entire Psalm is the song of the woes of the jewish people who were taken captive by the babylonians.. the verses there are in regard to recompense for what was done to them. The babylonians took their babies and smashed them against the rocks... if this had happened to you, I think you'd want revenge yourself.

Answer 2

Psalm 137:8-9 "Fair Babylon, you destroyer, happy those who pay you back the evil you have done us! Happy those who seize your children and smash them against a rock."

This is not telling Israelites to smash their own children against rocks and kill them. This is a prayer that David wrote to YHVH about the fighting between Babylon and Jerusalem. That is was the Babylonians that were happy where they killed God's children, the Israelites, during a battle near Zion. You have against, like so many, taken one verse and misinterpret it. You need to read the entire chapter. You need to know the history and who the author is and who is being talked about to understand what one verse is takling about. You are trying to put your own words into God's mouth and that will not happen as long as the Holy Spirit guides His Church on earth. Educate yourself on the Bible or just stop trying to confuse people. Because the righteous with always win.

Answer 3

David was being sarcastic after being taken captive by the Babylonians. You take it out of context. Read the whole book and pray for understanding. Otherwise your reading is all in vain.

Psalm 137: 4How shall we sing the LORD's song in a strange land?

5If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.

6If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.

7Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.

8O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.

9Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.

Answer 4

You should post all of the psalm:

"Remember, LORD, against Edom that day at Jerusalem. They said: "Level it, level it down to its foundations!"
Fair Babylon, you destroyer, happy those who pay you back the evil you have done us!
Happy those who seize your children and smash them against a rock. "

The psalmist, an Israelite in captivity, is warning the people of Babylon that those who will conquer Babylon (not the Israelites) will be as ruthless to them as they were to the Israelites.

Answer 5

Matt D, I'm really not sure what else it could mean. The chapter basically talks about getting revenge on the captors by dashing their babies against rocks. I don't know how you can turn that into something happy.

Answer 6

The bronze age middle eastern goat herders that inspired those tales and legends really had a wild imagination when they were telling stories at night around the camp fire, playing to scare each other...

Answer 7

Having never dashed anyone against a rock except myself when learning how to ride a bicycle, I don't feel qualified to answer this one.

I *do* feel pretty bad when I runneth over a squirrel with my Dodge chariot and squisheth his little guts out, however.

Answer 8

I took mine to a stones concert for that very purpose but i couldn't get close enough to the stage to dasheth them on Jagger

Answer 9

In that scripture, God is talking to the people of Babylon, which at the time was similar to Sodom and Gomorrah. He was telling them what would happen if they did not repent, what kind of actions their enemies would take against them, not God himself. It is never God's will to harm children; evil begets evil, and He is trying to warn the people of the consequences of their sins. If God did not care, he would not have said anything to them.

Answer 10

this was capturing the feelings of the Israelites in Babylon, no doubt similar things had been done to them. Feeling of revenge sometimes must come before forgiveness.