Bible Strands
Psalms 137:3
for there our captors requested a song; our tormentors demanded songs of joy: “Sing us a song of Zion.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The exiled Israelite community speaks of their captivity, recalling the moment their Babylonian captors demanded they perform worship music in a foreign land.
The words — שׁוֹבֵינוּ (shōḇēnû) literally means "our captors," and שִׂמְחָה (śimḥāh) translates to "gladness" or "joy," marking the specific demand for celebratory songs.
The thread — This clash between coerced performance and authentic worship appears in Lamentations 2:15, where passersby mock the city, and Psalms 9:14, which anticipates declaring praises within Zion's gates, while Luke 21:6 notes the impending destruction that made such exile unavoidable.
Why it lands — The text requires a reader to acknowledge that sacred worship cannot be extracted by force and that genuine praise is bound to its proper context, not to places of foreign domination.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
Cross-references
- Luke 21:6 “As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
- Psalms 9:14 that I may declare all Your praises—that within the gates of Daughter Zion I may rejoice in Your salvation.
- Lamentations 2:15 All who pass by clap their hands at you in scorn. They hiss and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?”
- Micah 3:12 Therefore, because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, and the temple mount a wooded ridge.
- 1 Chronicles 16:7 On that day David first committed to Asaph and his associates this song of thanksgiving to the LORD:
- Nehemiah 4:2 before his associates and the army of Samaria, saying, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Can they restore the wall by themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day? Can they bring these burnt stones back to life from the mounds of rubble?”
- Psalms 65:1 For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. A song. Praise awaits You, O God, in Zion; to You our vows will be fulfilled.
- Psalms 79:1 A Psalm of Asaph. The nations, O God, have invaded Your inheritance; they have defiled Your holy temple and reduced Jerusalem to rubble.
- Psalms 80:6 You make us contend with our neighbors; our enemies mock us.
- Psalms 123:3 Have mercy on us, O LORD, have mercy, for we have endured much contempt.