Fathers

Psalms 137

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By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yes, we wept, when we remembered Zion. On the willows in that land, we hung up our harps. For there, those who led us captive asked us for songs. Those who tormented us demanded songs of joy: “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How can we sing Yahweh’s song in a foreign land? If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill. Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I don’t remember you, if I don’t prefer Jerusalem above my chief joy. Remember, Yahweh, against the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem, who said, “Raze it! Raze it even to its foundation!” Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, he will be happy who repays you, as you have done to us. Happy shall he be, who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock.

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What the Fathers say

Psalms 137:8

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

Then he turneth himself to her, "O daughter of Babylon, unhappy;" unhappy in thy very exulting, thy presumption, thine enmity; "unhappy daughter of Babylon!" (ver. 8). The city is called both Babylon, and daughter of Babylon: just as they speak of "Jerusalem" and "the daughter of Jerusalem," "Sion" and "the daughter of Sion," "the Church" and "the daughter of the Church." As it succeedeth the other, it is called "daughter;" as it is preferred before the other, it is called "mother." There was a former Babylon; did the people remain …

Exposition on Psalm 137 ↗

Ambrose of Milan

And David, pitying her, says, "O wretched daughter of Babylon." Wretched indeed, as being the daughter of Babylon, when she ceased to be the daughter of Jerusalem. And yet he calls for a healer for her and says, "Blessed is he who shall take your little ones and dash them against the rock." That is to say, shall dash all corrupt and filthy thoughts against Christ, who by his fear and his rebuke will break down all actions against reason, so as, if any one is seized by an adulterous love, to extinguish the fire, that he may by his …

Concerning Repentance 2.11.106 ↗

Jerome

Wretched daughter of Babylon. The daughter of Babylon is the soul which is always in motion and in confusion, and has no stability, but is in vices and in sins — which is truly wretched. "Blessed is he who shall repay you your recompense which you have repaid to us." Blessed is he who shall repay her what she herself has done. For example: she cast me out of paradise; I, through abstinence, bring her back there. She deceived me into fornication; I, through chastity, bring her back into Jerusalem, and out of vices into virtue. …

Homily 48, on Psalm 136 ↗