By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
Read Chapter 137
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
1. ...But to-day we have sung, "By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept, when we remembered Sion" (ver. 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, loveth 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 hath loved is not a foundation of Jerusalem, but a stream of Babylon. Another saith, It is a grand thing to be a soldier: all husbandmen fear those who are soldiers. ...
3. But then other citizens of the holy Jerusalem, understanding their captivity, mark how the natural wishes and the various lusts of men hurry and drag them hither and thither, and drive them into the sea; they see this, and they throw not themselves into the waters of Babylon, but "sit down and weep," either for those who are being carried away by them, or themselves whose deserts have placed them in Babylon, but ...
For Jeremias. For the time of Jeremias, and the captivity of Babylon. (Challoner)
Or "of "(Jeremiæ.; Haydock) Jeremias; on which subject he composed his Lamentations, as the Septuagint thus insinuate. (Worthington)
The title may be a later insertion, and is not the same in all the Greek or Latin copies. It is wholly omitted in Hebrew Theodoret blames those who have written the name of Jeremias, as he was never at Babylon. (Calmet)
He might send the psalm to the captives, (Grotius) though it were written by David, (Gerer.) who was a prophet. See Psalm lxxviii. (Berthier)
The captives express their sentiments at Babylon, (Bossuet) or at their return; (Calmet) and thus, under the figure of the earthly Jerusalem, (Berthier) aspire to heaven. (St. Augustine)
Rivers. Euphrates The Jews retired to such places to pray. (Philo, con. Flac.) (Acts xvi. 13.) (Haydock)
Sion, and all the ceremonies of religion. (Worthington) Ver. 2. Willow. With which the Euphrates was lined, Isaias xv. 7. It ...
