Originally posted by PinkFloyd
Aye--that's the one!
Regarding solely the line 137.9 I think that the psalmist declares a prophecy according to the universal desire of the Human for a righteous retribution. The main idea of this line has to do with Justice;
The Babylonians were in fact the equivalent of the powerful and merciful robber, they were conquering and slaughtering the nations (children included) just in order to establish their state. Since this genocide tactic was the trademark of the Babylonians, the psalmist foresees that in the future they will suffer just the same due to the fact that there will be found people who will gladly make to them what they use to do to the other nations -he foresees that there will be found people willing to kill the children of Babylon, people eager to undertake to commit this terrible action with their free will.
I also see 137.9 as a proof that, for the psalmist, the moral equilibrium stands above the gospel, and this BTW is my opinion too -Justice must anyway stand above “religion”.
Finally, just for the record, what happened?
Well, the children of Babylon were not executed by the Jews; on the contrary, under the state of their terror the Babylonians decided to put their own offspring and their wives to their own swords.
All in all the psalmist assures the Jews that in the future they will see their enemies killing themselves without having to participate to this brutal genocide; it is just a prophecy. For the time being, as the Jews are by the rivers of Babylon, it would be enough just to sing not -just to resist non-violently. No contradiction, and of course...
Nothing Holy😵
witch of Endor
15 Feb '09 20:41
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