Abstract
This article engages in a decolonial reading of Ps 137 in light of South African songs of struggle. In this reading, Ps 137 is regarded as an epic song which combines struggle songs which originated within the golah community in response to the colonial relations between the oppressor and the oppressed. The songs of struggle then gained new life during the post-exilic period as a result of the new colonial relation between the Yehud community and the Persian Empire. Therefore, Ps 137 should be viewed as not a mere song, but an anthology of songs of struggle: a protest song (vv. 1-4), a sorrow song (vv. 5-6), and a war song (vv. 7-9). https://doi.org/10.17159/2312-3621/2019/v32n2a12
Highlights
This article engages in a decolonial reading of Ps 137 in light of South African songs of struggle
Ps 137 is regarded as an epic song which combines struggle songs which originated within the golah community in response to the colonial relations between the oppressor and the oppressed
Bob Becking, in a paper entitled “Does Exile Equal Suffering? A Fresh Look at Psalm 137,”1 argues that exile and diaspora for the exiles who were in Babylon did not so much amount to things such as hunger and oppression or economic hardship; instead, it was more a feeling of alienation which resulted in the longing to return to Zion
Summary
Bob Becking, in a paper entitled “Does Exile Equal Suffering? A Fresh Look at Psalm 137,”1 argues that exile and diaspora for the exiles who were in Babylon did not so much amount to things such as hunger and oppression or economic hardship; instead, it was more a feeling of alienation which resulted in the longing to return to Zion. Ramantswana, “Reading of Psalm 137,” OTE 32/2 (2019): 464-490 socially accepted expressions, which at least indirectly serve imperial interests.[2]. While there are psalms which reflect imperial domination over the subjects, it does not necessarily follow that the psalter in toto served the interests of the empire. Certain psalms may be regarded as anti-imperial; this does not render the Psalter as a whole an antiimperial book. Ps 137 is read as an epic psalm which combines songs of struggle which originated within the golah community in Babylon and were reborn during the post-exilic period within the Yehud community when the golah community returned. Ps 137 is an anthology of struggle songs which engage issues of imperial power and domination by capturing the anxieties of the exilic period and the post-exilic period
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