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.
For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song - literally, 'words of a song'-a joyous song (Hebrew, Shir). However well-meaning might be the request, it sounded to the Jews like bitter irony to ask them to associate joyful singing with exile from the Zion of their natural and spiritual affections. Their conquerors desired them to reconcile themselves to their lot, to dismiss Zion from their memory, and to feel at home in Babylon. So the King of Assyria tried to make the thought of deportation not so distasteful (Isaiah 36:17).
And they that wasted us required of us mirth, (saying,) Sing us one of the songs of Zion - `one of the joyous, songs' wont to be sung at the great feasts "of Zion." "They that wasted us." The Chaldaic Targum translates, 'our depredators' х towlaaleeynuw (H8437), from shaalal (H7997), to spoil, the Hebrew letter taw (t) being substituted for the Hebrew letter shin (sh) in the Chaldaic idiom, which the Hebrews acquired in exile. Otherwise, from taalal (H8524), to make in heaps (cf. Psalms 79:1). So Buxtorf. But Gesenius takes it from yaalal (H3213), to wail; those who make us to wail]. This active sense is favoured by the parallel, "they that carried us away captive," rather than as Hengstenberg, the passive, 'And (they required) of us, the plundered ones, mirth.' The words "they that carried us away captive," and "they that wasted us," imply that they were asking what their own wrongful treatment of the Jews rendered it impossible for the latter to give.