Bible Strands
Psalms 137:9
Blessed is he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The exiled psalmist, speaking for Israelites mourning in Babylon, pronounces a blessing on those who will repay the city for its past atrocities. The speaker addresses the collective trauma of the displaced community while framing retribution as a divinely sanctioned act.
The words — The Hebrew term אַשְׁרֵי ('ashrei) opens the declaration with "how blessed," and נִפֵּץ (nipetz) translates literally as "he will smash." These terms anchor the verse's graphic instruction to seize the enemy's children and strike them against the rock.
The thread — The principle of repaying an enemy as they have done runs directly from Psalms 137:8, while the motif of infants being dashed to pieces appears in Isaiah 13:16, Hosea 13:16, and Nahum 3:10. These passages share a consistent depiction of the brutal consequences of conquest and covenant rebellion.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to confront the unvarnished reality of ancient warfare and the psalmist's demand for justice without softening its violence. It asks for acknowledgment that the passage records a raw plea for retribution rather than prescribing moral conduct.
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
Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 13:16 Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses will be looted, and their wives will be ravished.
- Hosea 13:16 Samaria will bear her guilt because she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open.
- Nahum 3:10 Yet she became an exile; she went into captivity. Her infants were dashed to pieces at the head of every street. They cast lots for her dignitaries, and all her nobles were bound in chains.
- 2 Kings 8:12 “Why is my lord weeping?” asked Hazael. “Because I know the evil you will do to the Israelites,” Elisha replied. “You will set fire to their fortresses, kill their young men with the sword, dash their little ones to pieces, and rip open their pregnant women.”
- Hosea 10:14 the roar of battle will rise against your people, so that all your fortresses will be demolished as Shalman devastated Beth-arbel in the day of battle, when mothers were dashed to pieces along with their children.