I’m aware of the fact that Atheists will quote Psalms 137:9 as a rebuttal to Christians. This particular verse doesn’t seem to be a command from God. How do we interpret it in light of Exodus 20:13, about not murdering?
Should we view it as an antiquated verse from another time? (I’m aware somebody already asked this on this site, I’ll check it out, but the mentioning of Exodus 20:13 is the major difference).
Historically it was the Medes that did this to Babylon.
Isaiah 13:16-18 16 Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished. 17 Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it. 18 Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.
However in the greater context of Gods plans the verse is prophetic in nature and calling upon the same images and language for events leading to and about The Second Advent. Christs return.
Isaiah 13:16 Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.
Zechariah 14:1-9
2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
9 And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one.
In a prophetic sense think of the events just prior to the second advent. We are talking Satans deception aka the tribulation. This then is a war of a greater spiritual nature.
When Christ says, woe to those with child and give suck in those days. In light of that, apply Psalms 137:9 as follows:
The child is Not from the True Husband and The believer. Its a child from a unholy union between Christians and the ultimate form of idolatry Satan worship.
This shows us Gods emotions.
God says they are going into captivity for their actions. God forewarns not to worship any Gods besides Himself. Chrsitians do not believe they are going into captivity their doctrines will save them that goes for all the worlds religious views.
The child that results will be dashed (Spiritually speaking) upon the rocks.
Satan arrives and only the Elect that do know their God and The Real Christ will do exploits.
Psalms 137:9 Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.
We have one rock that we are to stand on, but what are the stones that shall not spare the children of Israel? It is God that will sling the stones that will end this earth age, and look at the true value of that is said, for there is not regard to silver or gold, for God created it all, and men cannot buy their way out of the vengeance that shall come on this world to end this earth age. The men and women of this earth age are going to find out the hard way that God is real, alive and the Rock that can crush anything that they put against Him. There needs to be no more said, for that system will be destroyed.
About The Commandment.
Thou shalt do no Murder (lay in wait criminal homicide of a innocent life) is the commandment. That's accurate to the Hebrew and description given throughout scriptures.
Its a personal and national civil law. God does Not break His laws nor condone mens sins.
In wartime its a death or killing; And God is always Just and fair. God is Judge of these matters.
Resources :
1 https://www.youtube.com/user/TheShepherdsChapel/playlists
2 https://www.youtube.com/user/JustThoughtsstudies/playlists
Looking carefully at the Hebrew shows that this is not actually translated properly in the KJV.
The King James Version has it as:
Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones. (Psalm 137:9, KJV)
However, "the stones" comes from a Hebrew word that is singular and could mean "the Rock" in its figurative usage.
Based on this, I would submit that the text may not refer to killing at all, but rather to the conversion of souls by bringing them to an encounter with the Rock of their salvation. Consider Jesus' teaching along these lines:
And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. (Matthew 21:44, KJV)
The person who causes others to fall on this stone, and be broken, is blessed for helping them be converted rather than being destroyed later on should the Rock fall upon them instead.
Why did YHVH tell נְבֽוּכַדְנֶאצַּ֧ר Nebuchadnezzar (King of Bavel מֶ֥לֶךְ בָּבֶ֖ל) in both Psalm 137:9 & Isaiah 13:16 that : עוֺלְלִי-ךְ "Your-Infants" will be dashed on a rock?
The harsh prophecy of בָּבֶל Bavel ("Babylon") which Isaiah (son of Amoz) prophesied in Isaiah 13:1-22 is repeated in [Tehillim | Psalms 137:9]
In [Isaiah 13] verse 16, the prophet יְשַׁעְיָ֖הוּ. Yeshayahu originally stated : "And [ their-Infants ] shall be dashed before their eyes; their houses pillaged, and their wives ravished." (וְעֹֽלְלֵיהֶ֥ם יְרֻטְּשׁ֖וּ לְעֵֽינֵיהֶ֑ם יִשַּׁ֙סּוּ֙ בָּֽתֵּיהֶ֔ם וּנְשֵׁיהֶ֖ם תִּשָּׁכַֽבְנָה (כתיב תִּשָּׁגַֽלְנָה) )
The word עֹל Ol = "yoke" (Burden) also found in [Lamentations 3:27] looks similar to the word עֹלֵל Olel = "infant" first found in [1 Samuel 15:3].
The objects of Isaiah's curse for Bavel is : Olelei-hem עֹֽלְלֵיהֶ֥ם = "their-Infants" like we find in [Hoshea 14:1] in the Hebrew Tanakh.
Isaiah curses Bavel's Infants with the verb : Yerutshu יְרֻטְּשׁ֖וּ = "they [m.] will be dismembered" just like the phrase used in Hoshea 14:1 of the Tanakh.
The phrase : עֹֽלְלֵיהֶ֣ם יְרֻטָּ֔שׁוּ from [Isaiah 13:16] the prophesy for Bavel is changed in [Psalm 137 verse 9] to second person possessive : Olelayi-kh עֽוֹלָלַ֔יִךְ = "Your-Infants". - Also the the cursing verb in Psalms 137:9 is no longer יְרֻטְּשׁ֖וּ Yerutshu but נִפֵּץ Nipets meaning "disseminated".
[Tehillim | Psalms 137:9] "Praiseworthy is he who will take and dash [ Your-Infants ] against the-rock." (אַשְׁרֵ֚י | שֶׁיֹּאחֵ֓ז וְנִפֵּ֬ץ אֶת־עֹ֜לָלַ֗יִךְ אֶל־הַסָּֽלַע)
I wouldn't attempt to answer this question if the following article wasn't available.
Kaiser, W. C., Jr., Davids, P. H., Bruce, F. F., & Brauch, M. T. "137:8–9 A Call for Revenge?" (1996). Hard sayings of the Bible, (p. 280-282). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity.
Their beginning paragraph summarizes the difficulty with Psalm 137:8-9.
Many tenderhearted believers have read these words with shock and chagrin. They are frankly at a loss to explain how one could speak with what appears to be such malice, vindictiveness and delight of the sufferings of others, especially children. How can the gentleness of the opening verses of this psalm be harmonized with the call for such brutal revenge in the last verses? -- Kaiser, p. 280
On the issue of Exodus 10:13 most modern translations translate it, "Do not murder." However, when you include the rest of the Torah. There are plenty of commands to annihilate cities in the Promised Land.
The Hebrew language possesses seven words related to killing, and the word used in this sixth commandment appears only forty-seven times in the Old Testament. This Hebrew verb, rāṣaḥ, refers only to the killing of a person, never to killing animals, and not even to killing persons in a war. It carries no implications of the means of killing. -- Kaiser, "20:13 You Shall Not Take Life?," p. 148
The senses of רצח as used in the MT (Logos Bible Software).
Jesus' command to love your enemies is a better contrast to Psalm 137:9.
But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. (Matt. 5:44–45, ESV)
But this doesn't settle the issue for Christians because Jesus quotes Psalm 137.
The words “dashes [your infants] against the rocks” are usually regarded as being so contrary to the teachings of the New Testament that here is little need to discuss the matter any further. Curiously enough, these very same words are repeated in the New Testament by no one less than our Lord (Lk 19:44). In fact, the verb in its Greek form is found only in Psalm 137:9 (in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew text) and in the lament of our Lord over Jerusalem in Luke 19:44. This is the clearest proof possible that our Lord was intentionally referring to this psalm. Moreover, our Lord found no more difficulty in quoting this psalm than he did in quoting the other two psalms most filled with prayers of imprecation, namely, Psalms 69 and 109. -- Kaiser, p. 281
There is also much in Revelation that keeps Christians from discounting Psalm 137. For example:
When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Rev. 6:9–10, ESV)
A important thing to consider:
The word translated “infant” [עֹ֝לָלַ֗יִךְ] is somewhat misleading. The Hebrew word does not specify age, for it may mean a very young or a grown child. The word focuses on a relationship and not on age; as such, it points to the fact that the sins of the fathers were being repeated in the next generation. -- Kaiser, p. 281
I can't conclude the answer better than this:
What, then, does “Happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us—he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks” mean? It means that God will destroy Babylon and her progeny for her proud assault against God and his kingdom. But those who trust in God will be blessed and happy. For those who groaned under the terrifying hand of their captors in Babylon there was the prospect of a sweet, divine victory that they would share in as sons and daughters of the living God. As such, this is a prayer Christians may also pray, so long as it is realized that what is at stake is not our own reputation or our personal enemies, but the cause of our Lord’s great name and kingdom. -- Kaiser, p. 282
The book Hard sayings of the Bible in the articles about Exodus 20:13 and Psalm 137:8-9 has much more detail than I could practically include here.
Exodus 20:
13 You shall not murder.
Psalm 137:
8 Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction,
happy is the one who repays you
according to what you have done to us.
9Happy is the one who seizes your infants
and dashes them against the rocks.
How do we interpret Psalms 137:9 in light of Exodus 20:13?
This is an imprecatory psalm with warfare. The psalmist was not thinking about Exodus 20:13. He was thinking about vengeance. You interpret this from the psalmist's emotional point of view. This is not about morality but emotions.
this imprecatory Psalm is God sanctioned warfare?
Nowhere in this psalm says that it is sanctioned by God. Also, the psalmist doesn't specify who will be doing the punishment.
The context of this Psalmic verse is a life-death confrontation of two nations, when conquering of Jerusalem by Babylonians meant a general massacre. Jews, who would naturally desire to be safe from such enemies, would be necessitated to pay with the same coin and not only kill the actual fighters, but also their children - potential avengers - to keep safe also their next generation of Jews. Thus, "blessed is the one who will safeguard our posterity through killing Babylonian infants - the future potential avengers." Would any prophet having heard that a valorous Jewish soldier returned after, risking his life, having sacked Babylon and had not spared Babylonian infants either, having smashed them on rock, yes, would any such prophet reprimand and censure such a soldier with such words: "I admit, you did it well and right to destroy our enemies' city, but killing their infants, that was an unpardonable crime for which you should be put to death!" That's was not possible at that time.
However, if a Christian takes the literal sense, he will be stupid and commit a grave sin, for in the light of Gospels a new sense should be put in this verse, namely:
"Babylon" as a sinful city signifies sinfulness, whereas "Babylonian infant" signifies a sinful thought, desire, intention that creeps in our hearts; the "Rock" on which we must smash and destroy this "infant" or this sinful thought is "Rock" of our faith in Christ, until yet this thought/desire/intention is little, like an infant, lest it grows and defeats us.
