Text -- Psalms 128:1-3 (NET)

Psalm 128

128:1 A song of ascents. How blessed is every one of the Lord’s loyal followers, each one who keeps his commands! 128:2 You will eat what you worked so hard to grow. You will be blessed and secure. 128:3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine in the inner rooms of your house; your children will be like olive branches, as they sit all around your table.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Psa 128:1

¹ sn Psalm 128. The psalmist observes that the godly individual has genuine happiness because the Lord rewards such a person with prosperity and numerous children.

² sn The precise significance of this title, which appears in Pss 120-134, is unclear. Perhaps worshipers recited these psalms when they ascended the road to Jerusalem to celebrate annual religious festivals. For a discussion of their background see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 219-21.

³ tn Heb “every fearer of the Lord.”

⁴ tn Heb “the one who walks in his ways.”

NET Notes: Psa 128:2

¹ tn The psalmist addresses the representative God-fearing man, as indicated by the references to “your wife” (v. 3) and “the man” (v. 4), as well as the second masculine singular pronominal and verbal forms in vv. 2-6.

² tn Heb “the work of your hands, indeed you will eat.”

³ tn Heb “how blessed you [will be] and it will be good for you.”

NET Notes: Psa 128:3

¹ sn The metaphor of the fruitful vine pictures the wife as fertile; she will give her husband numerous children (see the next line).

² tn One could translate “sons” (see Ps 127:3 and the note on the word “sons” there), but here the term seems to refer more generally to children of both genders.