Psalm 137
v.3
for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!“
v.4
How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?
v.5
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill.
v.7
Remember, O Lord, what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell. “Tear it down,” they cried, “tear it down to its foundations!”
The principal theme of the book of Obadiah is an indictment of Edom for its crimes against Judah. This nation, located south and east of the Dead Sea, has a mixed tradition among the Israelites. Much like the relationship between Jacob and Esau, the traditional founders of each nation, Edom is at times seen as a friend and ally (Deut 2:2-6; 2 Kings 3:9) and on other occasions as a deadly enemy (Num 20:14-21; Amos 1:11-15). During the period of the Neo-Assyrian empire and the Neo-Babylonian empire (734-586), Edom had been a vassal state. Most likely Obadiah’s complaint against Edom, as well as that of the psalmist, relates to the participation of that nation in the final destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of its people by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 587/6 B.C. Unfortunately, however, records are unclear concerning the precise role that Edom played.