Verse Lens · Concise explanation
Psalms 137:3 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 3. 3For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Psalm 137:3: The reason or consequence in “For there they that carried us away captive required of us…” supports the surrounding claim in “Exile memory, silenced song, and a horrific wish: Exiles refuse coerced Zion songs.”
Read It With
- Psalms 137:1–6
- Psalms 137:1–9
Read Psalms 137:3 with 137:1–6 and 137:1–9. Read alone, “For there they that carried us away captive required of us a…” could lose the communal voice, the parallel line or movement it develops, and the psalm's outcome. The complete movement establishes: Within Psalms 137:1–6, the communal voice carries the movement “Exiles refuse coerced Zion songs” as part of “Exile memory, silenced song, and a horrific wish.” Its communal-lament-imprecation form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Psalms 137:1–6 opens Psalm 137 with “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion” and establishes the communal voice and “Exiles refuse coerced Zion songs” movement before later lines develop or answer it. Within that relationship, Psalm 137:3 supplies a reason or consequence through “For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song” and must be read with the claim it supports.
What Remains True
In “Exile memory, silenced song, and a horrific wish: Exiles refuse coerced Zion songs,” Psalm 137:3 supplies a reason or consequence through “For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song” and must be read with the claim it supports. The resulting truth stays bounded by this movement: Wrong and rage may be named honestly before the LORD, yet judgment remains accountable to justice and never turns another person into disposable prey. The local movement is “Exiles refuse coerced Zion songs.” The unit's reviewed limit is: The final wish voices traumatized rage after Babylonian violence; it does not bless killing children, authorize revenge, or identify modern peoples as Edom or Babylon.
How It Can Shape Life
- Start with the line's work inside “Exile memory, silenced song, and a horrific wish: Exiles refuse coerced Zion songs”—Psalm 137:3 supplies a reason or consequence through “For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song” and must be read with the claim it supports. Then let the line “For there they that carried us away captive required of us a…” make room for protest without dehumanizing anyone; choose safety, truthful evidence, and justice over revenge.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Psalms 137:1–6 — Exile memory, silenced song, and a horrific wish: Exiles refuse coerced Zion songsSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Psalms 137:1–6, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Psalms
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ps.xml, OSIS 137:1–6
Open the fixed Hebrew Psalms file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible Notes: Psalms 1-150
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, current official online edition
Supports: Verse-level controls for poetic syntax, imagery, older KJV language, textual issues, headings, and alternatives in Psalms 137:1–6.
Exact location: Official NET Bible Psalm 137 HTML, translator, textual, and study notes attached to Psalms 137:1–6
Open the official NET Psalms notes ↗