一般稱呼的咒詛詩（the imprecatory psalms），可以說是屬於詩篇中哀歌文學類型裏的一項分類。詩人在詩篇中向神表達出內心情感的怒氣，並且對敵人發出咒詛的言語。對於這一類的詩篇，聖經的讀者常發現與新約中倫理的教訓發生衝突，似乎違反基督宗教所強調愛的教訓。本文嘗試透過咒詛詩，特別是以詩篇137 篇為代表，來討論咒詛詩在舊約文學形成這一類詩篇可能產生的社會背景，並且詮釋他們在古以色列社群的可能功能。其實，咒詛詩不是只有讓詩人表達抒發情緒而已，也不是以色列後期才發展出來的，她的起源可以追溯自雅威與以色列族長時期立定盟約時的神學基礎。而唯有認識咒詛詩中強烈情感的語言表達，是與以色列民族對錫安的熱愛密不可分，才能適切的瞭解這類詩篇。最後，本文也試著從釋經史的角度，來看在西方的教會歷史中，一些代表性入物對該詩篇的詮釋以及他們是如何應用這類的詩篇。

The imprecatory psalms are a category within the lament type of psalms. Psalmists express their emotion and anger to God while cursing their enemies. Readers often find tension between these psalms and the
New Testament emphasis on love. This article discusses this category of
psalms—especially psalm 137—asks what kind of sociological background
they are likely to arise from, and interprets their possible function within ancient Israelite communities. In fact, the imprecatory psalms are not just a tool for the psalmists to express their emotions and they belong not just to the later periods of Israel. Their origin can be traced back to theological groundings established when Yahweh made covenant with the Patriarchs.Only by understanding how the strong emotional language in the psalms comes together with the passion of the Israelites for Zion can such psalms be properly understood. At the end, this article also analyzes this category of psalms from the perspective of hermeneutical history, examining interpretations by some key persons and the way they use these psalms.