(King James Version) Psalms 137:8-9 O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.
The above verse is one that was brought to my attention recently by a skeptic on Twitter. Though I have read this passage before, I hadn’t spend much time or research studying it. One of my former friends -who was leaving the faith- mentioned this to me as well; acting like it was a deathblow to the Bible and its inspiration. Though I will admit that such a passage at face value seems hard to reconcile -and incites appeals to emotion- but upon further investigation there are factors and context which give us the clarity, that a surface reading won’t do. First, we must remember that the psalmist is a Jewish writer (not sure who as it does not say) who is embittered towards Babylon as the Babylonians ransacked the civilization of the Jewish people -taking them into captivity- and destroyed their once glorious temple. He may very well be hoping for the “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” scenario.
Read this Razor Swift article in its entirety at Razor Swift
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