“Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.”
Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem's fall, how they said, Tear it down! Tear it down! Down to its foundations! The petition shifts from self-directed curses to invocation of divine judgment against the Edomites, who participated in Jerusalem's destruction. Remember invokes God's obligation to judge; the invocation suggests that divine justice requires accounting for the Edomites' cruelty. Their taunt (Tear it down!) reveals genocidal intent; they celebrated the total destruction of the beloved city. The doubling of tear it down (שׁערו שׁערו) creates emphasis on their bloodlust and the comprehensiveness of destruction they desired. This verse introduces the psalm's most controversial section, wherein the exiles call for divine vengeance.
Church Fathers on Psalms 137:7
1. ...But today we have sung, “By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept, when we remembered Sion” Psalm 136:1.... 2. Observe “the waters of Babylon.” “The waters of Babylon” are all things which here are loved, and pass away. One man, for example, loves to practise husbandry, to grow rich thereby, to employ his mind therein, thence to gain pleasure: let him observe the issue, and see that what he has loved is not a foundation of Jerusalem, but a stream of Babylon.…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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