Psalms 137:4
How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?
Psalms 137:4 in other translations
| BSB | How can we sing a song of the LORD in a foreign land? |
|---|---|
| WEB | How can we sing the LORD’s song in a foreign land? |
| ASV | How shall we sing Jehovah’s song In a foreign land? |
| YLT | How do we sing the song of Jehovah, On the land of a stranger? |
| DARBY | How should we sing a song of Jehovah's upon a foreign soil? |
| BBE | How may we give the Lord's song in a strange land? |
| Webster | How shall we sing the LORD'S song in a foreign land? |
What does Psalms 137:4 mean?
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Psalms 137:3-4
3-4. Whether the request was in curiosity or derision, the answer intimates that a compliance was incongruous with their mournful feelings (Pr 25:20).
Adam Clarke's Commentary
Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Psalms 137:1-4
Their enemies had carried the Jews captive from their own land. To complete their woes, they insulted over them; they required of them mirth and a song. This was very barbarous; also profane, for no songs would serve but the songs of Zion. Scoffers are not to be compiled with. They do not say, How shall we sing, when we are so much in sorrow? but, It is the Lord's song, therefore we dare not sing it among idolaters.
Psalms 137:4 in the original Hebrew
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Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).
Cross references for Psalms 137:4
- Amos 8:3
And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord God: there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence.
- Isaiah 22:12
And in that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:
- Hosea 9:4
They shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord, neither shall they be pleasing unto him: their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted: for their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the Lord.
- Lamentations 5:14-15
The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick. The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.
- Ecclesiastes 3:4
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
- Isaiah 49:21
Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been?
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Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Context
- Psalms 137:3
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.
- Psalms 137:4
How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?
- Psalms 137:5
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.
Psalms 137:4 in other languages
| Spanish Reina-Valera 1909 | Cantadnos algunos de los himnos de Sión. ¿Cómo cantaremos canción de Jehová en tierra de extraños? |
|---|---|
| French Bible J.N. Darby 1885 | Comment chanterions-nous un cantique de l’ Éternel sur un sol étranger? |
| German Elberfelder 1871 | Wie sollten wir ein Lied Jehovas singen auf fremder Erde? |
| Latin Clementine Vulgate | Confiteantur tibi, Domine, omnes reges terræ, quia audierunt omnia verba oris tui. |