Blessed will be one who seizes and dashes your children Against the rock.
Parallel translations
- WEB Happy shall he be, who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock.
- KJV Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.
- BSB Blessed is he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.
- NKJV Happy the one who takes and dashes Your little ones against the rock!
- NLT Happy is the one who takes your babies and smashes them against the rocks!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The psalm pronounces a blessing on whoever repays Babylon in full, even to its children, a verse that troubles many readers.
Overview
This harsh closing line echoes the brutal warfare of the ancient world and the cruelty Babylon had inflicted on Israel's own children. Faithful Christians read it not as a license for personal revenge but as an anguished cry for divine justice against a violent oppressor, voiced in raw, imprecatory language. It expresses the longing that evil be fully judged, a longing answered finally at the cross and in Christ's righteous return, while believers themselves are called to love their enemies.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Isa 13:16Their infants also will be dashed in pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be ransacked, and their wives raped.
- Hos 13:16Samaria will bear her guilt; for she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women will be ripped open.”
- Nah 3:10Yet was she carried away. She went into captivity. Her young children also were dashed in pieces at the head of all the streets, and they cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains.
- 2 Kgs 8:12Hazael said, “Why do you weep, my lord?” He answered, “Because I know the evil that you will do to the children of Israel. You will set their strongholds on fire, and you will kill their young men with the sword, and will dash their little ones in pieces, and rip up their pregnant women.”
- Hos 10:14Therefore a battle roar will arise among your people, and all your fortresses will be destroyed, as Shalman destroyed Beth Arbel in the day of battle. The mother was dashed in pieces with her children.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 137:9 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.