Refusing to Sing in Babylon

ABSENCE OF MUSIC IN THE CAPTIVITY In predicting the judgment of the captivity days for Israel because of her sins, the prophet said: "The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth" (Isaiah 24:8). Music largely ceased among the captive Hebrews in Babylonia. The exiles composed a psalm in which they said: "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps (lyres) upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the LORD's song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning" (Psalm 137:1-5). The Babylonian captors had heard of the songs of Zion for which Jerusalem was noted, and asked their captives to sing one of them for them. But the Jewish religious singing was so vitally connected with the Temple of Jerusalem that they refused to sing such a song in a foreign land. [Manners And Customs of Bible Lands]