Call to remember Edom's cries

Psalm 137 is an exile lament that moves from grief to vow and then to appeal. Earlier lines picture captives in Babylon who cannot sing Zion’s songs and who refuse to forget Jerusalem. Verses 5–6 bind the speaker to remember Jerusalem above personal joy. Verse 7 continues the theme of remembering but shifts the object: now the psalm asks Yahweh to remember Edom’s role in Jerusalem’s collapse. This line sets up the next section’s fierce address against Babylon (vv. 8–9), linking memory of trauma to petitions about how God should respond.

The “day of Jerusalem” points to the time when Jerusalem was overrun and devastated, commonly associated with the Babylonian conquest that ended Judah’s kingdom (586 BC). In that crisis, neighboring peoples could exploit Judah’s weakness, and the psalm recalls Edom as not merely watching but verbally encouraging total ruin. Edom was a close regional neighbor to Judah with a long history of tension, so its words during Jerusalem’s fall would be felt as betrayal. The verse preserves a remembered shout as evidence in a plea directed to Israel’s God.

Shared ground

Psalm 137:7 is a direct appeal to Yahweh to not let something be forgotten: what “the children of Edom” said and did during “the day of Jerusalem.” The verse assumes that spoken encouragement toward violence matters and can be brought before God as part of a complaint. It also treats Jerusalem’s fall as a defining public event, not merely a private wound.

The remembered content is specific and quoted: Edom’s people urged total destruction—“Raze it… even to its foundation.” The repetition intensifies the picture of wanting Jerusalem wiped out completely.

Where interpretation differs

Does “remember… against” ask for punishment or for attention? Some read the request as a call for God to act in judgment on Edom because of its role in Jerusalem’s collapse. Others read it more cautiously as a plea that God take Edom’s betrayal into account—without specifying what action should follow (especially since the psalm will later address Babylon more directly).

Who are “the children/sons of Edom”? Some take it as the nation as a whole (Edom as a corporate actor). Others narrow it to those who participated, such as leaders, soldiers, or the crowd who voiced the chant.

How literal is “to its foundation”? Some read it as literal demolition language (stripping the city down to its base). Others hear it as forceful rhetoric meaning “leave nothing standing,” emphasizing total ruin more than construction details.

Why the disagreement exists The verse is short and poetic. It reports remembered speech and asks God to “remember,” but it does not spell out the exact outcome requested. Key phrases (“against,” “children of,” “foundation”) can work either as legal-like language for judgment or as vivid lament language that exposes betrayal and calls for God’s moral attention.

What this passage clearly contributes The text explicitly presents Edom’s encouragement of Jerusalem’s destruction as a serious moral offense worth preserving in communal memory before God. It strengthens Psalm 137’s theme that “remembering” is central to exile: the exiles remember Zion, and they ask God to remember those who celebrated Zion’s ruin (Psalm 137:7).