A friend of mine posted this status recently. While he was being deliberately inflammatory, I feel like it provides a good springboard for a lot of biblical discussion.
The full text for this verse is:
By the rivers of Babylon—
there we sat down and there we wept
when we remembered Zion.
we hung up our harps.
For there our captors
asked us for songs,
and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,
‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’
How could we sing the Lord’s song
in a foreign land?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand wither!
Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth,
if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
above my highest joy.
Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites
the day of Jerusalem’s fall,
how they said, ‘Tear it down! Tear it down!
Down to its foundations!’
O daughter Babylon, you devastator!
Happy shall they be who pay you back
what you have done to us!
Happy shall they be who take your little ones
and dash them against the rock!
While at first, it's shocking to see infanticide associated with joy, in context this makes a lot more sense.
First off, sorry guys, David didn't write all the Psalms. As you can see here, this was written sometime during or after the diaspora to Babylon (586 BC, roughly 500 years after David died).
This psalm is actually pretty famous among diaspora Jews (and was later appropriated by the American slaves) as a lament for Zion. It's been set to music several times.
Anyway, what's important about this verse is not really the baby killing, but the yearning of a people for their homeland. When the Jews are yearning not to forget Zion, they are really hoping not to forget the Lord, and what he had done for them by bringing them to the promised land. To a pre-rabbinic Jew, the temple/Zion/Jerusalem was the center of worship, a physical manifestation of God's goodness and faithfulness. They set Zion above their highest joy, as the modern Christian is to count all but Christ as a loss.
This verse also serves to remind us that the Bible is a historical narrative. It's not something you can just grab verses out of willy nilly. It tells a cohesive story, in a very human way, particularly in the Old Testament. Here, we encounter very real human emotion, this is a lament a cry for justice. Is it not human to take glee in repaying one's oppressors? You'll notice that the Bible makes no value judgment on this statement, it merely says that those taking revenge will be happy. It's just a statement of human nature, it's a historical narrative.
What I want to stress, is that for the diaspora Jews, to take such an extreme revenge is justice. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. Anyone who rose against the chosen people was the worst kind of sinner, and deserved the harshest of judgment. These babies are Babylonians, they are of the lineage that tore down David's Temple, they deserve to die. It's perfect justice.
If you, dear reader, as a modern Christian are shocked by this, I urge you to ponder your own theology. There are many forms of Christianity today that (if they had the balls to be honest) would just as soon condemn those killed babies to eternity in hell, because God decided that there were only so many seats in heaven, and his justice is perfect.
Perfect justice by whose standards?
ReplyDeleteDo we, today, suffer from the transgressions of our forefathers? Perhaps in some way, but certainly not to the degree of infanticide.
And for a Christian to read this in light of the Gospels and the sayings of Jesus it seems pretty clear that revenge should not be taken.
Just my thoughts.
Good article though.