The interpretation timeline

Ps 136:5

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

1 Patristic · 1 Jewish · 1 Catholic

Ps 136:5 · Douay-Rheims
“If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand be forgotten.”
Patristic before A.D. 750
430
A.D.
Augustine of Hippo Patristic
A.D. 354–430
“But take heed how thou dwellest among them, O people of God, O body of Christ, O high-born band of wanderers (for thy home is not here, but elsewhere), lest when thou lovest them, strivest for their friendship, and fearest to displease such men, Babylon begin to delight thee and thou forget Jerusalem. In fear then of this, see what the Psalmist subjoins, see what follows. "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem" (ver. 5), amid the speeches of those who hold me captive, amid the speeches of treacherous men, amid the speeches of men who ask with ill intent, asking, yet unwilling to learn. ...What then? "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget me."”
Source
675 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
Scholastic c. 1100 – 1500
1105
A.D.
Rashi Jewish
1040–1105
“If I forget you, O Jerusalem The congregation of Israel says this.”
744 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
Post-Reformation c. 1650 – 1900
1849
A.D.
1774–1849
“Forgotten. May all that is most dear to us perish, if we do not serve God, (Worthington) and seek to procure the welfare of Jerusalem. (Haydock) — Yet they knew that the joy of their earthly abode in that city could not satisfy their desires. They allude, therefore, ultimately to heaven. (Berthier)”
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.