Psa 137:1 | KD | STEP | The Hallelujah Ps 135 and the Hodu Ps 136 are followed by a Psalm which glances back into the time of the Exile, when such cheerful songs as they once sang to the accompaniment of the music of the Levites at the worship of God on Mount Zion were obliged to be silent. It is anonymous. The inscription Τῷ Δαυίδ (διὰ) Ἱιερεμίου found in codices of the lxx, which is meant to say that it is a Davidic song coming from the heart of Jeremiah, is all the more erroneous as Jeremiah never was one of the Babylonian exiles. The שׁ, which is repeated three times in Psa 136:8., corresponds to the time of the composition of the Psalm which is required by its contents. It is just the same with the paragogic i in the future in Psa 136:6. But in other respects the language is classic; and the rhythm, at the beginning softly elegiac, then more and more excited, and abounding in guttural and sibilant sounds, is so expressive that scarcely any Psalm is so easily impressed on the memory as this, which is so pictorial even in sound. The metre resembles the elegiac as it appears in the so-called caesura schema of the Lamentations and in the cadence of , which is like the Sapphic strophe. Every second lien corresponds to the pentameter of the elegiac metre.

‏ Psalms 137:1

By the Rivers of Babylon

The Hallelujah Ps 135 and the Hodu Ps 136 are followed by a Psalm which glances back into the time of the Exile, when such cheerful songs as they once sang to the accompaniment of the music of the Levites at the worship of God on Mount Zion were obliged to be silent. It is anonymous. The inscription Τῷ Δαυίδ (διὰ) Ἱιερεμίου found in codices of the lxx, which is meant to say that it is a Davidic song coming from the heart of Jeremiah, ^{▼▼Reversely Ellies du Pin (in the preface of his Bibliotèque des Auteurs Ecclésiastiques) says: Le Pseaume 136 porte le nom de David et de Jeremie, ce qu'il faut apparement entendre ainsi: Pseaume de Jeremie fait à l'imitation de David.} is all the more erroneous as Jeremiah never was one of the Babylonian exiles.

The שׁ, which is repeated three times in Psa 136:8., corresponds to the time of the composition of the Psalm which is required by its contents. It is just the same with the paragogic i in the future in Psa 136:6. But in other respects the language is classic; and the rhythm, at the beginning softly elegiac, then more and more excited, and abounding in guttural and sibilant sounds, is so expressive that scarcely any Psalm is so easily impressed on the memory as this, which is so pictorial even in sound.

The metre resembles the elegiac as it appears in the so-called caesura schema of the Lamentations and in the cadence of Isa 16:9-10, which is like the Sapphic strophe. Every second lien corresponds to the pentameter of the elegiac metre.