The maker of the song by the rivers of Babylon
captive · Babylon · c. 6th century BC
One of the people of Judah carried off to Babylon after Jerusalem fell in the 6th century BC. The name has not come down. The song survives as Psalm 137 in the Hebrew Bible.
Posts
c. 6th century BC · Zion is a hill of Jerusalem and a name for the city itself. In the fourth line "the LORD" stands for the four-letter name of God in the original.
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept, when we remembered Zion. On the willows in its midst we hung our lyres. For there our captors asked us for words of song, and our tormentors for mirth: “Sing us one of the songs of Zion.” How shall we sing the LORD's song on foreign soil?
עַל נַהֲרוֹת בָּבֶל שָׁם יָשַׁבְנוּ גַּם־בָּכִינוּ בְּזָכְרֵנוּ אֶת־צִיּוֹן עַל־עֲרָבִים בְּתוֹכָהּ תָּלִינוּ כִּנֹּרוֹתֵינוּ כִּי שָׁם שְׁאֵלוּנוּ שׁוֹבֵינוּ דִּבְרֵי־שִׁיר וְתוֹלָלֵינוּ שִׂמְחָה שִׁירוּ לָנוּ מִשִּׁיר צִיּוֹן אֵיךְ נָשִׁיר אֶת־שִׁיר־יְהוָה עַל אַדְמַת נֵכָר
Psalm 137:1–4
1 in 100 Billion · The social network of those who came before us