Mother Zion

“Glorious things are spoken of you, Zion, city of our God” (Psalm 87:3). What sorts of glories ( nikbadot , from kabad )? Battles won? Cultural achievements? The temple? In Psalm 87, Zion is glorious because Zion is a fruitful mother. Like Proverbs 31, Psalm 87 is a heroic celebration of domesticity.

Verse 3 lists some of Zion’s unlikely children: Egypt, Babylon, Philistia, Tyre, Ethiopia. “Each one was born in her (v. 5). Yahweh tallies up the peoples and finds again and again, “This one was born here” (v. 6). Zion is the city with maternal rule over the kings of the earth. And the nations know it: The Psalm ends with an international dance and song, each nation acknowledging that Zion is the spring from which it flowed.

What can we make of this Psalm? Proto-Zionist hyperbole? In what real sense was Zion the mother of Egypt and Babylon? How did Zion give birth to and raise these great ancient empires from infancy? If we were to figure that out, we would have a key to a radically revised account of ancient history.