---
title: "Bullinger"
description: "Babylon. The Psalm is anonymous, and probably by Hezekiah. No need to refer it to post-exilic times. The Psalm reads as though it were a reminiscence of"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/bullingers-companion-bible-notes/psalms/137"
---

**Babylon.** The Psalm is anonymous, and probably by Hezekiah. No need to refer it to post-exilic times. The Psalm reads as though it were a reminiscence of past experience in Babylon, and a contrast with previous joys in Zion; not, as during or after the seventy years, or an experience of a then present exile in Babylon. The writer is in Jerusalem after an absence not of long duration; and is full of joy. The post-exilic captives were full of sorrow on their return ([Ezra 3:12](../../../kjv/ezra/3/12) .[Haggai 2:3](../../../kjv/haggai/2/3); [Haggai 2:3](../../../kjv/haggai/2/3) ). These exiles had obeyed Isaiah *'* s call ([Isaiah 48:20](../../../kjv/isaiah/48/20) . Compare Psa 43:14-21 ).

**they that carried us away:** i.e. the captives of Judah, as those of Israel had been by Shalmaneser and Sargon. The latter took away only 27,280 from Samaria. See note on [1 Chronicles 5:6](../../../kjv/1-chronicles/5/6) ; and App-67 .

**the LORD'S.** Hebrew. *Jehovah.* s. App-4 .
**strange** = foreigner's.

**If I forget . . . do not remember.** The writer's then present personal declaration.
**Let my right hand forget.** Supply "me" for the Ellipsis. Some codices, with Septuagint and Vulgate, read "let my right hand be forgotten".

**children** = sons.
**Edom.** [Genesis 27:39](../../../kjv/genesis/27/39) , [Genesis 27:40](../../../kjv/genesis/27/40) was not fulfilled until the reign of Joram ([2 Kings 8:20-23](../../../kjv/2-kings/8/20-23) . [2 Chronicles 21:8-10](../../../kjv/2-chronicles/21/8-10) (compare [1 Kings 22:47](../../../kjv/1-kings/22/47) ). From that time they were implacable enemies.
**day.** Put by Figure of speech *Metonymy* (of Adjunct) for what happened at the time ( App-6 ). Compare [Job 18:20](../../../kjv/job/18/20) . [Hosea 1:11](../../../kjv/hosea/1/11) .[Joel 1:15](../../../kjv/joel/1/15) .[Luke 17:22](../../../kjv/luke/17/22) , [Luke 17:26](../../../kjv/luke/17/26) ; [Luke 19:42](../../../kjv/luke/19/42) . [1 Corinthians 4:3](../../../kjv/1-corinthians/4/3) .
**Who said.** The reference is to what they *said* , not to what they *did* ; to the encouragement given to Sennacherib, not to the help given to Nebuchadnezzar. That is what Obadiah, a later prophet, refers to. Isaiah (Hezekiah's contemporary) refers to the earlier words. See [Isaiah 34:6](../../../kjv/isaiah/34/6) . Here Edom does not go beyond words.
**Rase it, rase it.** Figure of speech *Epizeuxis* ( App-6 ) for emphasis. This was *said* , not *done,* at that time.

**to be destroyed.** Hezekiah must have been familiar with Isaiah's prophecies, who employs the very words of verses: [Psalms 137:8](../../../kjv/psalms/137/8) , [Psalms 137:9](../../../kjv/psalms/137/9) . ([Isaiah 13:6](../../../kjv/isaiah/13/6) , [Isaiah 13:16-18](../../../kjv/isaiah/13/16-18) ; [Isaiah 21:9](../../../kjv/isaiah/21/9) ; [Isaiah 47:14](../../../kjv/isaiah/47/14) , [Isaiah 47:15](../../../kjv/isaiah/47/15) . Compare [Nahum 3:10](../../../kjv/nahum/3/10) .)
**Happy.** See App-63 . for the Beatitudes of the Psalms.
**rewardeth.** See notes above, which show that the "post-exilic" assumption involves insuperable difficulties if this Psalm is sundered from the contemporary prophecies of Isaiah (especially Psa 13:1-14 ; Psa 13:27 ), and from a Babylon under Assyrian rule.

**little ones.** The reference is to [Isaiah 13:16-18](../../../kjv/isaiah/13/16-18) , which belongs to a Dispensation of Law and Judgment, and is not to be interpreted of the present Dispensation of Grace.

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