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English Revised Version
Psalms 137:5
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- CondensedParallel Translations
If I forget you, Jerusalem,may my right hand forget its skill.
If I forget you, Yerushalayim, Let my right hand forget its skill.
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill!
Jerusalem, if I forget you, let my right hand lose its skill.
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand be crippled!
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, Let my right hand forget [her skill with the harp].
If I forget you, Jerusalem, May my right hand forget its skill.
If I forget you, Jerusalem, Let my right hand forget its skill.
If I forget thee, O Ierusalem, let my right hand forget to play.
If I forget you, O Jerusalem,May my right hand forget her skill.
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand cease to function.
Jerusalem, if I forget you, let my right hand go limp.
If I forget you, Yerushalayim, may my right hand wither away!
If I forget thee, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget [its skill];
Jerusalem, if I ever forget you, may I never play a song again.
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget me.
May I never be able to play the harp again if I forget you, Jerusalem!
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget.
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget;
Yf I forget the (o Ierusalem) let my right hande be forgotten.
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, Let my right hand forget her skill.
If I keep not your memory, O Jerusalem, let not my right hand keep the memory of its art.
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.
If I forget thee, O Ierusalem: let my right hand forget her cunning.
If I forget thee O Hierusalem: let my right hande forget [her cunning.]
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill.
If Y foryete thee, Jerusalem; my riyt hond be youun to foryeting.
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, Let my right hand forget [her skill].
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget [her skill].
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, Let my right hand forget its skill!
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget how to play the harp.
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget what it is able to do.
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither!
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, Let my right-hand forget:
(136-5) If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand be forgotten.
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither!
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, my right hand forgetteth!
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, May my right hand forget her skill.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
I forget: Psalms 84:1, Psalms 84:2, Psalms 84:10, Psalms 102:13, Psalms 102:14, Psalms 122:5-9, Nehemiah 1:2-4, Nehemiah 2:2, Nehemiah 2:3, Isaiah 62:1, Isaiah 62:6, Isaiah 62:7, Jeremiah 51:50, Daniel 6:10, Daniel 6:11
let my right: Zechariah 11:17
Reciprocal: Exodus 26:31 - cunning work Deuteronomy 26:15 - bless thy 1 Samuel 4:22 - The glory 2 Samuel 15:14 - and smite Psalms 51:18 - Do Psalms 122:9 - I will seek Daniel 9:20 - for
Gill's Notes on the Bible
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,.... This was said by one or everyone of the Levites; or singers, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi; or by the congregation of Israel, as Jarchi; by one of them, in the name of the rest; or by the composer of the psalm. The Targum is,
"the voice of the Spirit of God answered and said, "if I forget", c.''
that is, to weep over the calamities of Jerusalem which might be thought, if the songs of Zion were sung; or to pray for the restoration of her prosperity and peace; as the church of Christ may be said to be forgotten, when men forget to mourn over its breaches, and show no concern for the reparation of them; or at the death of principal persons, which they lay not to heart; or at the great decay of religion in those that survive; or at the sins of professors, and their disregard to the word and ordinances: also when they forget to pray for her happiness in general; for the good of her members in particular; and especially for her ministers, that they may have assistance and success; and for a blessing on the word and ordinances, and for the conversion of sinners; and when they forget the worship of the Lord in it, and forsake the assembling of themselves together;
let my right hand forget [her cunning]; her skill in music, particularly in playing on the harp; see 1 Samuel 16:16; the harp was held in the left hand, and struck with the right; and that more softly or hardly, as the note required, in which was the skill or cunning of using it. Or let this befall me, should I so far forget Jerusalem as to strike the harp to one of the songs of Zion in a strange land: or let it forget any of its works; let it be disabled from working at all; let it be dry and withered, which, Aben Ezra says, is the sense of the word according to some; and Schultens d, from the use of it in Arabic, renders it, let it be "disjointed", or the nerve loosened; see
Job 31:22. Or the sense is, let everything that is as dear as my right hand he taken from me: or, as it may be rendered, "my right hand [is] forgotten" e; that is, should I forget Jerusalem, it would; for that is as my right hand; so Arama. Some choose to translate the words thus, "may thou (O God) forget my right hand" f; that is, to be at my right hand; to be a present help to me in time of need; to hold me by it, and to be the shade of it.
d Animadv. Philol. p. 181. e תשכח ימיני "oblita est nostra dextra", Castalio. f "Oblivisceris (O Domine) dexterae meae", Gejerus; so some in Michaelis.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem - The meaning here is, that to sing in such circumstances would seem to imply that they had forgotten Jerusalem; that they were unmindful of its sorrows, and cared not that it was desolate. The remembrance of its calamities pressed hard upon them, and they could not do anything which would seem to imply that they had become unmindful of the sufferings that had come upon their nation. One will not make merry when a wife or child lies dying - or on the day of the funeral - or over the grave of a mother. A joyous and brilliant party, accompanied with music, feasting, dancing, when a friend has been just laid in the grave, when the calamities of war are abroad, when the pestilence is raging in a city, we feel to be untimely, unseemly, and incongruous. So these captives said it would be if they should make merry while their temple was in ruins; while their city was desolate; while their people were captives in a foreign land.
Let my right hand forget her cunning - Let my right hand forget its skill in music - all its skill. If I should now play on the harp - as indicative of joy - let the hand which would be employed in sweeping over its strings become paralyzed and powerless. Let the punishment come where it would seem to be deserved - on the hand which could play at such a time. So Cranmer held the hand which had been employed in signing a recantation of his faith in the fire, until it was burned off, and dropped in the flames.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Psalms 137:5. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem — Such conduct would be, in effect, a renunciation of our land a tacit acknowledgment that we were reconciled to our bondage; a concession that we were pleased with our captivity, and could profane holy ordinances by using them as means of sport or pastime to the heathen. No: Jerusalem! we remember thee and thy Divine ordinances: and especially thy King and our God, whose indignation we must bear, because we have sinned against him.
Let my right hand forget — Let me forget the use of my right hand. Let me forget that which is dearest and most profitable to me; and let me lose my skill in the management of my harp, if I ever prostitute it to please the ungodly multitude or the enemies of my Creator!
