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Psalm 137

Psa. 137:4 KJV (With Strong’s)

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4
How shall we sing
shiyr (Hebrew #7891)
a primitive root (identical with 7788 through the idea of strolling minstrelsy); to sing
KJV usage: behold (by mistake for 7789), sing(-er, -ing man, - ing woman).
Pronounce: sheer
Origin: or (the original form) shuwr (1 Sam. 18:6) {shoor}
the Lord’s
Yhovah (Hebrew #3068)
(the) self-Existent or Eternal; Jehovah, Jewish national name of God
KJV usage: Jehovah, the Lord. Compare 3050, 3069.
Pronounce: yeh-ho-vaw'
Origin: from 1961
song
shiyr (Hebrew #7892)
from 7891; a song; abstractly, singing
KJV usage: musical(-ick), X sing(-er, -ing), song.
Pronounce: sheer
Origin: or feminine shiyrah {shee-raw'}
in a κstrange
nekar (Hebrew #5236)
foreign, or (concretely) a foreigner, or (abstractly) heathendom
KJV usage: alien, strange (+ -er).
Pronounce: nay-kawr'
Origin: ' from 5234
land
'adamah (Hebrew #127)
soil (from its general redness)
KJV usage: country, earth, ground, husband(-man) (-ry), land.
Pronounce: ad-aw-maw'
Origin: from 119
?
κ
land of a stranger.

More on:

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Singing,
Songs

Cross References

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Ministry on This Verse

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How shall.
Eccl. 3:4• 4A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; (Eccl. 3:4)
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Isa. 22:12• 12And in that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth: (Isa. 22:12)
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Lam. 5:14‑15• 14The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their music.
 15The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning. (Lam. 5:14‑15)
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Hos. 9:4• 4They shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord, neither shall they be pleasing unto him: their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted: for their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the Lord. (Hos. 9:4)
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Amos 8:3• 3And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord God: there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence. (Amos 8:3)
strange land.
Heb. land of a stranger.
Isa. 49:21• 21Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been? (Isa. 49:21)
• How can the godly sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? What can the world know of the joy of the Lord, or of the sorrows of Jerusalem? To join with the world in its songs and its mirth would be to forget Jerusalem and its sorrows. (“Psalms 137” by H. Smith)
• God having stirred up their hearts toward Jerusalem and their homeland will cause them to feel it is the place where they belong. As a result they are not able to sing or rejoice until they are brought again to Zion (vs. 4-6). (“Book 5.” by B. Anstey)

J. N. Darby Translation

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4
How should we sing a song of Jehovah’s upon a foreign soil?