Psalms 137:3

For there&c. The reason why their harps were silent. It might have been expected that they would soothe their sorrow with plaintive music; but the heartless demand of their captors made it impossible.

asked of ussongs] Lit. words of song.

they that wasted us The exact meaning is doubtful. The A.V. marg. -Heb. laid us on heaps" rests on an impossible derivation, and the R.V. marg. our tormentorson an improbable one. Perhaps with the change of a single letter shôlelçnu, -our spoilers,"should be read instead of the obscure tôlâlçnu.

Coverdale's rendering in the P.B.V., and melody in our heaviness, comes from Luther, -und in unserm Heulen ein fröhlich Gesang."

one of the songs of Zion Or, some of the songs. As these songs are called in the next verse Jehovah's songs, it is clear that it is not secular songs that are meant, but the sacred hymns of the Temple worship (2 Chronicles 29:27). To sing these for the amusement of their conquerors would have been the grossest profanation of all that they held most dear; an act comparable to Belshazzar's use of the consecrated vessels at his feast (Daniel 5:2). Cp. Matthew 7:6.