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Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Religion / Blessed Are Thee Who Take The Lives Of Your Little Ones!! Psalm 137:9 (315 Views)
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Blessed Are Thee Who Take The Lives Of Your Little Ones!! Psalm 137:9 by Nobody: 12:07pm On Apr 23, 2017 |
The meaning is pretty obvious in context.
Ps 137 is a lament for Jerusalem after the
Babylonians have invaded and destroyed it.
Verses 7-9 make it explicit:
7 Remember, LORD, what the Edomites
did on the day Jerusalem fell. “Tear it
down,” they cried, “tear it down to its
foundations!” 8 Daughter Babylon,
doomed to destruction, happy is the one
who repays you according to what you
have done to us. 9 Happy is the one who
seizes your infants and dashes them
against the rocks.
This is sheer gloating on the part of the
psalmist. Whoever overthrows Babylon is
someone the author wants to buy a beer!
(Put another way, that person is someone
really popular with the author.) Whoever
wrote this really hated the Babylonians, and
would love to kill their children.
Is this "right?" Remember, this is a psalm - an
ancient song of the Hebrews. I suspect many
a future scholar will puzzle over, say, the
misogynistic lyrics of Eminem or many like-
minded rappers. Psalms express the feelings
of the writer, NOT THEOLOGICAL RULES FOR
YOUR BEHAVIOR. (Although, it is often
argued that the feelings reflected in the
Psalms should be that of a mature Christian.)
Note also, there is nothing that says "You
should bash a baby against a rock." Doesn't
fit with the text or the nature of God. It would
be a misreading of the text, which actually
proves the point there are "rules" for reading
the text.
So, why is it in Scripture?
Who knows. 'Could be that God desired to
illustrate that the Exiles had learned their
lesson about spurning God's good gifts in
Jerusalem, could just be that people agreed
with the sentiment.
For a person who doesn't believe the Bible is a
"real" book, this verse is actually a pretty
good arguement. If the Bible were merely the
work of "men with an agenda," there doesn't
seem to be a good reason to let such a
genuine feeling in here.
The Bible can be literal but still express itself
in the language of feeling. |
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