Psalm 11 → 137

Reasoning: 8832 Output: 3565 Total: 12397

Argument

Here are ways to argue that Psalm 137 “follows” Psalm 11—stylistically, lexically, thematically, and in terms of narrative logic rooted in Israel’s history. I give heavier weight to rarer items and closer formal matches.

High‑value lexical and formulaic hooks
- The identical interrogative opening איך “How…?” in both poems:
  - Ps 11:1 איך תאמרו לנפשי “How can you (pl.) say to my soul…?”
  - Ps 137:4 איך נשיר “How shall we sing…?”
  This rare rhetorical posture—leading with איך to reject a proposed action—links the poems’ crises and the speakers’ refusal of improper counsel/demand.
- “Those who say” as a marked adversarial speech act:
  - Ps 11:1 תאמרו “you (pl.) say” to me (counsel to flee).
  - Ps 137:7 האומרים “those who say” (‘Raze! Raze!’), the hostile cry that brought about Jerusalem’s fall; and v3 שאלונו… שירו לנו “our captors asked… ‘Sing for us’.”
  Both psalms pivot on rejecting others’ words and resisting pressure.
- “Foundations” as the city/order collapsing:
  - Ps 11:3 כי השתות יהרסון “If/when the foundations are destroyed…”
  - Ps 137:7 עד היסוד בה “to its foundation(s)!”
  Though two different nouns (שתות vs יסוד), the thematic crux “foundation(s) destroyed/razed” is rare and central in each. Psalm 137 narrates exactly the scenario Psalm 11 fears: the city razed to its foundations.
- Sons of man vs sons of Edom:
  - Ps 11:4 עפעפיו יבחנו בני אדם “His eyelids test the sons of man.”
  - Ps 137:7 זכור יהוה לבני אדום “Remember, O LORD, against the sons of Edom.”
  The near‑homophony בני אדם / בני אדום, paired with “testing/remembering,” moves from God’s general assay of humanity (Ps 11) to a concrete target of remembrance/judgment (Edom) in the destruction of Jerusalem (Ps 137).
- Temple/Zion language:
  - Ps 11:4 יהוה בהיכל קדשו; יהוה בשמים כסאו “YHWH is in his holy temple; the LORD’s throne is in heaven.”
  - Ps 137:1–6 Zion/Jerusalem are the object of memory and the only proper locus of the שיר יהוה “song of YHWH.”
  Ps 11’s high‑temple enthronement underwrites Ps 137’s refusal to perform YHWH’s song on foreign soil; the earthly temple (Zion) and heavenly throne cohere as the true sphere of worship.
- Song/choir frame:
  - Ps 11 is marked למנצח, a performance superscription.
  - Ps 137 is about singing/not singing: שיר יהוה; שירו לנו; כינורותינו.
  Both are self‑aware liturgical compositions that thematize performance in the right place and manner.

Narrative/historical logic (a coherent sequence)
- Threat and counsel in Ps 11 → catastrophe and exile in Ps 137:
  - Ps 11:2–3 depicts a social order collapsing under violent wickedness, culminating in the possible demolition of the “foundations.”
  - Ps 137 narrates the aftermath: Jerusalem has in fact been razed to its “foundation,” its population deported, instruments hung up in Babylon. Thus Ps 137 reads as the historical instantiation of the crisis posited in Ps 11:3.
- Proper response to pressure:
  - Ps 11 rejects the panicked advice “Flee to your mountain like a bird” (נודו הרכם צפור), insisting on refuge in YHWH and confidence in his kingship and justice.
  - Ps 137 rejects the captors’ demand “Sing for us” and chooses fidelity to Zion (oaths in vv5–6). Both psalms model refusal of improper demands in the face of hostile voices, grounded in covenantal allegiance.
- Justice trajectory (testing → retribution):
  - Ps 11:4–7 God examines/tests; he hates lovers of violence; he will rain “fire and brimstone” (אש וגפרית) on the wicked.
  - Ps 137:7–9 calls for measured talionic repayment (גמול) for Babylon and for YHWH to “remember” Edom’s role. The imprecation in Ps 137 enacts the retributive horizon announced in Ps 11.
- Worship locus:
  - Ps 11 anchors worship in God’s temple/throne despite earthly upheaval.
  - Ps 137 insists that the שיר יהוה belongs to Zion, not a foreign land—a concrete outworking of Ps 11’s theological center: YHWH’s enthronement defines where and how his praise is fitting.

Additional stylistic/thematic affinities
- Both are short, tightly constructed lyric units that move from crisis to verdict, ending in a strong closure:
  - Ps 11 ends with a moral/theophanic certainty: “the upright will behold his face.”
  - Ps 137 ends with a stark macarism (אשרי…) pronouncing the blessedness of the agent of just recompense.
- Body‑part oath/visage motifs:
  - Ps 11:7 “the upright will behold his face” (פנימו); v4–5 the divine gaze/eyelids.
  - Ps 137:5–6 oaths invoking right hand and tongue/palate. Both deploy rare, concrete body imagery to seal moral resolve (God looks/test; we bind hand/tongue to memory of Zion).
- Geologic/topographic imagery:
  - Ps 11: “mountain” (הרכם), “foundations.”
  - Ps 137: “foundation,” “rock” (הסלע). The city as a built reality from foundation to rock becomes the stage of both crisis and recompense.

How Ps 137 can be read as the next logical step after Ps 11
- Ps 11 poses: What if the civic and cultic “foundations” are destroyed? Trust YHWH’s heavenly rule; reject fear; expect his testing and retributive justice.
- Ps 137 answers from history: The foundations were destroyed; we are by Babylon’s rivers. In that situation, faithfulness takes the form of refusing profane performance, vowing unforgetting devotion to Jerusalem, and appealing for the just repayment Ps 11 promised.
- Thus, Ps 137 functions as a case study and sequel: it narrates the real exile that matches Ps 11’s hypothetical crisis and embodies the theological stance Ps 11 commends.

Weighted highlights (per your criteria)
- Identical rare form: איך opening a refusal (Ps 11:1; 137:4) is especially strong.
- Rare, central concept repeated: “Foundations” destroyed/razed (Ps 11:3; 137:7) supplies a precise thematic hinge, even with different nouns.
- Close phrase play: בני אדם (Ps 11:4) → בני אדום (Ps 137:7) tightens the move from general testing to specific remembered enemies.
- Liturgical frame and “song of YHWH”: Ps 11’s performance heading and Ps 137’s explicit debate about singing converge on the propriety of worship.

Taken together, these lexical hooks, shared rhetorical posture, matching thematic arcs, and the historical sequence from threatened collapse (Ps 11) to exilic reality and appeal for justice (Ps 137) make a strong case that Psalm 137 can be read as logically following Psalm 11.

Evaluation

Score: 6.0

Evaluated at: 2025-12-31T02:34:52 (UTC)

Evaluator model: gpt-5

Evaluator version: v2

Reasoning: 2944 Output: 4379 Total: 7323

Vocabulary specificity: 5.0 / 10

Several precise links (איך; ‘foundations’; song/למנצח) with correct refs; no errors. But motifs widely shared; בני אדם/אדום pun is weak; no structural markers; counterpoints unaddressed.

Prompt

Consider Psalm 11 and Psalm 137 (reproduced below). What arguments could you make to justify that Psalm 137 logically follows on from Psalm 11? Consider stylistic similarities, similarities of form, similarities of vocab or ideas, shared roots (if you're doing the search in Hebrew), connections to sequences of events common in ancient Israelite life, mythology or history shared by the two psalms.

Rarer words are more significant than commoner words. Identical forms are more significant than similar forms. The same word class is more significant than different word classes formed from the same root. Identical roots are more significant than suppletive roots.

Psalm 11:
Psalm 11
1. לַמְנַצֵּ֗חַ
        לְדָ֫וִ֥ד
        בַּֽיהוָ֨ה ׀
        חָסִ֗יתִי
        אֵ֭יךְ
        תֹּאמְר֣וּ
        לְנַפְשִׁ֑י
        נודו
        נ֝֗וּדִי
        הַרְכֶ֥ם
        צִפּֽוֹר׃
2. כִּ֤י
        הִנֵּ֪ה
        הָרְשָׁעִ֡ים
        יִדְרְכ֬וּן
        קֶ֗שֶׁת
        כּוֹנְנ֣וּ
        חִצָּ֣ם
        עַל־
        יֶ֑תֶר
        לִיר֥וֹת
        בְּמוֹ־
        אֹ֝֗פֶל
        לְיִשְׁרֵי־
        לֵֽב׃
3. כִּ֣י
        הַ֭שָּׁתוֹת
        יֵֽהָרֵס֑וּן
        צַ֝דִּ֗יק
        מַה־
        פָּעָֽל׃
4. יְהוָ֤ה ׀
        בְּֽהֵ֘יכַ֤ל
        קָדְשׁ֗וֹ
        יְהוָה֮
        בַּשָּׁמַ֢יִם
        כִּ֫סְא֥וֹ
        עֵינָ֥יו
        יֶחֱז֑וּ
        עַפְעַפָּ֥יו
        יִ֝בְחֲנ֗וּ
        בְּנֵ֣י
        אָדָֽם׃
5. יְהוָה֮
        צַדִּ֢יק
        יִ֫בְחָ֥ן
        וְ֭רָשָׁע
        וְאֹהֵ֣ב
        חָמָ֑ס
        שָֽׂנְאָ֥ה
        נַפְשֽׁוֹ׃
6. יַמְטֵ֥ר
        עַל־
        רְשָׁעִ֗ים
        פַּ֫חִ֥ים
        אֵ֣שׁ
        וְ֭גָפְרִית
        וְר֥וּחַ
        זִלְעָפ֗וֹת
        מְנָ֣ת
        כּוֹסָֽם׃
7. כִּֽי־
        צַדִּ֣יק
        יְ֭הוָה
        צְדָק֣וֹת
        אָהֵ֑ב
        יָ֝שָׁ֗ר
        יֶחֱז֥וּ
        פָנֵֽימוֹ׃

Psalm 137:
Psalm 137
1. עַ֥ל
        נַהֲר֨וֹת ׀
        בָּבֶ֗ל
        שָׁ֣ם
        יָ֭שַׁבְנוּ
        גַּם־
        בָּכִ֑ינוּ
        בְּ֝זָכְרֵ֗נוּ
        אֶת־
        צִיּֽוֹן׃
2. עַֽל־
        עֲרָבִ֥ים
        בְּתוֹכָ֑הּ
        תָּ֝לִ֗ינוּ
        כִּנֹּרוֹתֵֽינוּ׃
3. כִּ֤י
        שָׁ֨ם
        שְֽׁאֵל֪וּנוּ
        שׁוֹבֵ֡ינוּ
        דִּבְרֵי־
        שִׁ֭יר
        וְתוֹלָלֵ֣ינוּ
        שִׂמְחָ֑ה
        שִׁ֥ירוּ
        לָ֝֗נוּ
        מִשִּׁ֥יר
        צִיּֽוֹן׃
4. אֵ֗יךְ
        נָשִׁ֥יר
        אֶת־
        שִׁיר־
        יְהוָ֑ה
        עַ֝֗ל
        אַדְמַ֥ת
        נֵכָֽר׃
5. אִֽם־
        אֶשְׁכָּחֵ֥ךְ
        יְֽרוּשָׁלִָ֗ם
        תִּשְׁכַּ֥ח
        יְמִינִֽי׃
6. תִּדְבַּֽק־
        לְשׁוֹנִ֨י ׀
        לְחִכִּי֮
        אִם־
        לֹ֢א
        אֶזְכְּ֫רֵ֥כִי
        אִם־
        לֹ֣א
        אַ֭עֲלֶה
        אֶת־
        יְרוּשָׁלִַ֑ם
        עַ֝֗ל
        רֹ֣אשׁ
        שִׂמְחָתִֽי׃
7. זְכֹ֤ר
        יְהוָ֨ה ׀
        לִבְנֵ֬י
        אֱד֗וֹם
        אֵת֮
        י֤וֹם
        יְֽרוּשָׁ֫לִָ֥ם
        הָ֭אֹ֣מְרִים
        עָ֤רוּ ׀
        עָ֑רוּ
        עָ֝֗ד
        הַיְס֥וֹד
        בָּֽהּ׃
8. בַּת־
        בָּבֶ֗ל
        הַשְּׁד֫וּדָ֥ה
        אַשְׁרֵ֥י
        שֶׁיְשַׁלֶּם־
        לָ֑ךְ
        אֶת־
        גְּ֝מוּלֵ֗ךְ
        שֶׁגָּמַ֥לְתְּ
        לָֽנוּ׃
9. אַשְׁרֵ֤י ׀
        שֶׁיֹּאחֵ֓ז
        וְנִפֵּ֬ץ
        אֶֽת־
        עֹלָלַ֗יִךְ
        אֶל־
        הַסָּֽלַע׃