Why read Psalm 136?
Psalm 136 gives voice to homesickness, exile and the grief of losing familiar surroundings. Its lament for Zion is deeply painful; the violent images at the end require careful interpretation, not an invitation to revenge.
You can read this psalm when its themes speak to your circumstances, or as part of your regular reading of the Psalter. This explanation draws on the text itself; the psalm is not reserved for one particular need.
"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down..." — so begins Psalm 136 (137 in Western Bibles), nine verses from the Nineteenth Kathisma. The Psalter is read in the Orthodox Church at every service, and this psalm has its own place in the order of prayer.
The text of Psalm 136
1. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Sion.
2. Upon the willows in the midst thereof did we hang our harps.
3. For there they that had taken us captive asked of us the words of a song, saying: "Sing us one of the songs of Sion!"
4. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?
5. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand be forgotten.
6. Let my tongue cleave to my throat, if I do not remember thee, if I do not set Jerusalem before me as the beginning of my joy.
7. Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom, in the day of the destruction of Jerusalem, who said: "Raze it, raze it, even to the foundations thereof!"
8. O daughter of Babylon, thou wretched one! Blessed is he that shall recompense thee thy recompense, which thou hast rendered to us.
9. Blessed is he that shall lay hold and dash thy little ones against the rock.
When Psalm 136 is read
- in captivity and in longing for home — it is read during the fasts.
- At the end of each psalm, the tradition adds: "Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen."
Neighbouring psalms
The numbering follows the Orthodox Psalter (Septuagint). The same psalm may have a different number in other Bible editions.
