Psalms 137:5
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand cease to function.
BSB
ASV
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, Let my right hand forget her skill.
KJV
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.
If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand be given over to forgetfulness. Therefore, because he has sinned and fallen, he calls to mind his former way of life and Jerusalem, and he sets before himself this resolve: that unless I shall always be mindful of you, and always hold you in mind, let my right hand be given over to forgetfulness — that is, my works. He did not say the left hand, but the right: for the left hand is always in forgetfulness. Do you wish, then, always to be in remembrance of the Lord?
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.
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. To sing Zion's songs for the pleasure of Zion's foes, would be to forget the Holy City Each Jew declares for himself that he will not do this; for the pronoun alters from "we" to "I." Individually the captives pledge themselves to fidelity to Jerusalem, and each one asserts that he had sooner forget the art which drew music from his harp strings than use it for Babel's delectation.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Psalms 84:10For better is one day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
leads to
One thing I have asked of the LORD; this is what I desire: to dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the…
O LORD, I love the house where You dwell, the place where Your glory resides.
So I have seen You in the sanctuary and beheld Your power and glory.
But our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,
Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh; but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
Through
Zechariah 11:17Woe to the worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock! May a sword strike his arm and his right eye! May his arm be completely withered and his right eye utterly blinded!”
leads to
“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!” declares the LORD.
This is what the Lord GOD says: Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit, yet have seen nothing.
So about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and that there is no God but one.
