Commentaire sur Les Psaumes 137:1

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat when we went down into exile, and Nebuchadnezzar asked them to sing for him as they used to sing on the stage.

By – This song was laid down in the first year after Cyrus conquered Babylon. By the rivers of Babylon – In Babylon we were not weeping and mourning Zion for the sake of the material goods we had lost, the wealth and possessions, fields and vineyards, because also ‘by the rivers of Babylon, there we sat’ meaning we had an established settlement. We also had there fields and vineyards, as it is written “build houses and live in them, plant vineyards and eat their fruits” (Jeremiah 29:5) Nevertheless, we also wept when we remembered Zion because we recalled the holiness of Zion, where the there was the Holy Temple, the service and the Divine Presence. For this we wept, for the spiritual joy which was lost to us.