Understanding Psalm 137:9

“Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.” 

– Psalm 137:9

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A Troubling Verse

Few verses in Scripture shock modern readers as much as Psalm 137:9. The image of “bashing infants against the rocks” seems to stand in direct opposition to the God of love, mercy, and compassion revealed throughout the Bible. Skeptics often seize upon this verse, pointing to it as evidence that the Bible endorses cruelty or even celebrates violence. Even for believers, it can be unsettling, raising questions about God’s Word and how to reconcile such raw brutality with the message of the gospel.

Yet, Psalm 137 is not a hidden verse—it is deliberately preserved in the Psalter, the prayer book of Israel and the Church. Instead of sanitizing human emotion, the Bible captures even the darkest cries of the human heart. To understand this verse, we must situate it within history, the genre of imprecatory psalms, the theology of justice, and its reception in both Jewish and Christian interpretation.

This blog will explore these dimensions, showing that Psalm 137:9 is not an endorsement of violence but a cry of anguish, a plea for justice, and ultimately a pointer toward God’s righteous judgment and Christ’s redemptive work.

The Historical Context of Psalm 137

Psalm 137 emerges from one of the darkest chapters in Israel’s history: the Babylonian exile of the sixth century BC. In 586 BC, Nebuchadnezzar’s army destroyed Jerusalem, tore down the Temple, and carried Judah’s people into captivity. The Babylonians were known for their cruelty. Contemporary records from the Assyrians and Babylonians describe the practice of inflicting terror by destroying entire populations—including women and children—to prevent rebellion and to humiliate conquered peoples¹.

The Babylonians had devastated Jerusalem, and Psalm 137 reflects the bitterness of that wound. The psalm begins with grief: “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion” (v. 1). It is the lament of captives, forced to sing songs of joy while their city lay in ruins.

For ancient Israel, children represented the future of a nation. To destroy the children was to extinguish hope itself. Thus, the psalmist’s shocking words in verse 9 reflect not only anguish but the longing for justice—that Babylon might reap what it had sown. In the ancient world, this was considered justice in kind: the horror they inflicted on others would return upon their own heads².

What Are Imprecatory Psalms?

Psalm 137 belongs to a group known as imprecatory psalms—prayers that call down curses or judgments upon enemies (cf. Psalms 69, 109). These psalms are not divine commands to enact violence. Instead, they are the raw prayers of God’s people, crying out in pain and longing for vindication.

Walter Brueggemann notes that the psalms give us “speech for the unspeakable,” allowing the faithful to pour out every human emotion before God³. Far from prescribing moral conduct, imprecatory psalms preserve the honesty of prayer: believers can bring their rage, grief, and even thirst for vengeance to God rather than acting upon it themselves.

The very fact that these verses are recorded as prayers, not as instructions, is key. They are directed upward, acknowledging that vengeance belongs to God (Deuteronomy 32:35), not to the oppressed. They are the cries of those who refuse to sanitize their suffering before the Almighty.

How Ancient Jews Would Have Understood Psalm 137:9

For Jews of the exile and afterward, Psalm 137 was not read as a moral command to kill children but as a lament about justice and retribution. The Aramaic Targum Psalms follows the Hebrew text fairly closely, without softening the shocking language. However, later Jewish interpretation—including rabbinic midrash and liturgical practice—framed the verse as a poetic curse upon Babylon rather than a literal instruction for Israel to carry out vengeance⁴.

Rabbinic interpreters often applied the principle of measure-for-measure justice (middah k’neged middah). Since Babylon had dashed Israel’s children against the stones (cf. Lamentations 5:11–13), the psalmist envisioned Babylon’s infants suffering the same fate⁵. The point was not that Israel should commit such acts, but that divine justice would one day reverse the cruelty of their oppressors.

In modern terms, we might compare this to how people casually use the word karma. One doesn’t have to be Hindu to say, “That’s karma” — it simply means, “What goes around comes around.” Likewise, when the psalmist declares Babylon’s infants will be dashed against the stones, he is expressing in his own cultural idiom that Babylon will ultimately reap what it sowed. The imagery is harsh, but the underlying thought is the same: oppressors will eventually face the consequences of their actions.

Jewish liturgical tradition incorporated Psalm 137 into Tisha B’Av, the annual fast commemorating the destruction of both Temples. In that setting, the verse served as a cry of grief and a reminder that God’s justice would ultimately prevail⁶.

Thus, ancient Jews understood Psalm 137:9 as a lament and a plea for divine retribution against Babylon, not as a prescriptive command for Israelite violence.

Interpreting Psalm 137:9 Today

The language of verse 9 is graphic, but its function is symbolic and judicial. The psalmist declares “happy” the one who would return Babylon’s atrocities upon them. This reflects an ancient form of poetic justice—if Babylon destroyed others’ children, then its own future would be cut off.

Today, we might not express it in such violent imagery. Instead, someone might simply say, “You reap what you sow” (Galatians 6:7) or “The chickens come home to roost.” The concept is the same: oppressors eventually experience consequences. The psalmist spoke from within the brutal realities of the ancient Near East, while modern people often frame the same longing for justice in more restrained, proverbial terms.

This verse is best understood in three layers:

1. Historical Reality: It reflects real atrocities Babylon had committed.
2. Judicial Cry: It expresses the longing for justice, “as they have done, so may it be done to them.”
3. Emotional Honesty: It acknowledges that victims of trauma cry out in ways that may sound shocking to those not sharing their pain.

Importantly, the psalm does not celebrate cruelty for cruelty’s sake. Instead, it reveals the heart of the oppressed, longing for God’s justice in the only terms they knew.

Violence, Justice, and the Psalms

Does Psalm 137:9 mean the Bible endorses violence? The answer is no. Scripture often records human anger without prescribing it as moral behavior. In fact, the psalms reflect the entire range of human experience, including anger, despair, and even the desire for revenge.

But God does not endorse vengeance. He transforms it. As the New Testament reminds us, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God” (Romans 12:19). The imprecatory psalms show us where unredeemed human emotion naturally leads, but they also remind us that such feelings must be handed over to God, not acted upon.

Even within the Old Testament, prophetic voices longed for a day when nations would “beat their swords into plowshares” (Isaiah 2:4). The psalmist’s cry anticipates that longing by acknowledging how unbearable injustice feels without divine intervention.

Christian Theological Reflections

For Christians, Psalm 137:9 points us toward the cross. The psalmist’s anguish is real, but its fulfillment is found in Christ, who bore both the justice and mercy of God.

1. Christ and the Imprecatory Psalms: Jesus Himself quoted psalms of lament on the cross (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Psalm 22:1). He took upon Himself the weight of human grief and the cry for justice.
2. God’s Vengeance Redirected: The ultimate vengeance against sin was poured out on Christ, who bore judgment in our place (Isaiah 53:5).
3. The Call of Jesus: Jesus transforms the cry for vengeance into the call to forgive enemies: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). This does not erase justice but entrusts it fully to God.
4. Hope in Final Justice: Revelation assures us that God will wipe away every tear (Revelation 21:4) and that Babylon the Great—symbol of all oppressive empires—will fall under His righteous judgment (Revelation 18).

Thus, the disturbing image of Psalm 137:9 ultimately finds resolution not in human vengeance but in God’s perfect justice revealed through the cross and final judgment.

Lessons for Believers Today

• Honest Prayer: Psalm 137 teaches us we can bring even our darkest emotions to God. He can handle our rawness.
• Understanding Trauma: Verses like 137:9 remind us of the psychological reality of trauma. Those who suffer greatly may express themselves with violent imagery. God does not censor such prayers.
• Justice vs. Revenge: Christians are called to entrust vengeance to God while seeking to reflect Christ’s mercy.
• Hope of Redemption: Even in exile, the psalmist’s lament pointed toward a hope of restoration. For Christians, that hope is fulfilled in Christ.

From Anguish to Redemption

Psalm 137:9 confronts us with one of the Bible’s rawest laments. It does not invite us to imitate violence but invites us to grapple honestly with the weight of suffering and the longing for justice. Ancient Jews understood this as a cry for retribution against oppressors, not as moral instruction. Christians, in turn, see its ultimate resolution in Christ, who bore the curse and offers forgiveness even to enemies.

Far from disproving the Bible’s truth, this verse shows its authenticity: Scripture refuses to gloss over the depths of human anguish. It records the cries of the wounded, entrusting them to the God who alone can bring perfect justice.

Psalm 137:9 is not a verse to be excused or ignored, but one that reminds us of humanity’s desperate need for redemption—and the God who answers in Jesus Christ.

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Endnotes

1. Mark J. Boda and Gordon J. Wenham, Imprecatory Psalms and the Christian, in Imprecatory Psalms in Modern Perspective (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2016), 23.
2. Tremper Longman III, Psalms (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2014), 457.
3. Walter Brueggemann, The Message of the Psalms (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1984), 69.
4. Joseph Heinemann, Prayer in the Talmud (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1977), 119–20.
5. Babylon’s cruelty described in Lamentations 5:11–13 illustrates the historical background of the psalmist’s prayer.
6. Adele Berlin, The Jewish Study Bible, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 1432.