The only one out of 150 psalms to be set in a particular time and place, it relates to the Babylonian Exile—the period between 587 and 586 B.C. in Israel’s history, when Jews were taken ...

In short: pure Italian opera. Nabucco is Nebuchadnezzer, who destroys the temple in Act I and takes the Jews into captivity in Babylon.

Psalm 137, the subject of my most recent book, “Song of Exile,” is a 2,500-year-old Hebrew poem that deals with the exile that will be remembered on Tisha B’av.

Psalm 137 – best known for its opening line, 'By the Rivers of Babylon' – is a 2,500-year-old Hebrew psalm that deals with the Jewish exile -remembered each year on Tisha B'av.

The only one out of 150 psalms to be set in a particular time and place, it relates to the Babylonian Exile — the period between 587-586 B.C. in Israel’s history, when Jews were taken captive ...

Coleman said the Babylonian Exile or Captivity clearly had a punitive aim. “God was punishing the people for their sin, rebellion and idolatry,” he said.

In the Hebrew Scriptures, the notion of universalism appears for the first time in the second book of Isaiah, which was written during and right after the Babylonian exile.