Upon the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept: when we remembered Sion:

A.

3463. B.C. cir

541. The author of this beautiful and affecting elegy is unknown, but the occasion is evident; and it was most probably composed during or near the close of the captivity.

the rivers

Genesis 2:10-14 And a river went out of the place of pleasure to water paradise, which from thence is divided into four heads. . . .

Ezra 8:21,31 And I proclaimed there a fast by the river Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before the Lord our God, and might ask of him a right way for us and for our children, and for all our substance. . . .

Ezekiel 1:1 Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, when I was in the midst of the captives by the river Chobar, the heavens were opened, and I saw the visions of God.

there sat

Nehemiah 1:3,4 And they said to me: They that have remained, and are left of the captivity there in the province, are in great affliction, and reproach: and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and the gates thereof are burnt with fire. . . .

Nehemiah 2:3 And I said to the king: O king, live for ever: why should not my countenance be sorrowful, seeing the city of the place of the sepulchres of my fathers is desolate, and the gates thereof are burnt with fire?

Job 2:12,13 And when they had lifted up their eyes afar off, they knew him not, and crying out, they wept, and rending their garments, they sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven. . . .

Jeremiah 13:17,18 But if you will not hear this, my soul shall weep in secret for your pride: weeping it shall weep, and my eyes shall run down with tears, because the flock of the Lord is carried away captive. . . .

Jeremiah 15:17 I sat not in the assembly of jesters, nor did I make a boast of the presence of thy hand: I sat alone, because thou hast filled me with threats.

Lamentations 2:10 Jod. The ancients of the daughter of Sion sit upon the ground, they have held their peace: they have sprinkled their heads with dust, they are girded with haircloth, the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.

Ezekiel 3:15 And I came to them of the captivity, to the heap of new corn, to them that dwelt by the river Chobar, and I sat where they sat: and I remained there seven days mourning in the midst of them.

we wept

Psalm 42:4 These things I remembered, and poured out my soul in me: for I shall go over into the place of the wonderful tabernacle, even to the house of God: With the voice of joy and praise; the noise of one feasting.

Psalm 102:9-14 For I did eat ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping. . . .

Isaiah 66:10 Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all you that mourn for her.

Jeremiah 51:50,51 You that have escaped the sword, come away, stand not still: remember the Lord afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind. . . .

Lamentations 1:16 Ain. Therefore do I weep, and my eyes run down with water: because the comforter, the relief of my soul, is far from me: my children are desolate because the enemy hath prevailed.

Lamentations 2:11,18 Caph. My eyes have failed with weeping, my bowels are troubled: my liver is poured out upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people, when the children, and the sucklings, fainted away in the streets of the city. . . .

Lamentations 3:48,51 Phe. My eye hath run down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people. . . .

Daniel 9:3 And I set my face to the Lord, my God, to pray and make supplication with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.

Daniel 10:2,3 In those days I, Daniel, mourned the days of three weeks. . . .

Luke 19:41 And when he drew near, seeing the city, he wept over it, saying:

Revelation 11:3 And I will give unto my two witnesses: and they shall prophesy, a thousand two hundred sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.