“Our sister, may you become the mother 2 of thousands of ten thousands!
May your descendants possess the strongholds 3 of their enemies.”
127:3 Yes, 7 sons 8 are a gift from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb is a reward.
128:3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine 9
in the inner rooms of your house;
your children 10 will be like olive branches,
as they sit all around your table.
1 tn Heb “and said to her.”
2 tn Heb “become thousands of ten thousands.”
3 tn Heb “gate,” which here stands for a walled city. In an ancient Near Eastern city the gate complex was the main area of defense (hence the translation “stronghold”). A similar phrase occurs in Gen 22:17.
4 tn The word “even” is not in Greek; it is implied by the height of the contrast.
5 sn According to Jewish intertestamental literature (such as 1 En. 20), Michael was one of seven archangels.
6 tn The sentence structure is a bit different in Greek. Literally it reads: “But Michael the archangel, when arguing with the devil and disputing.”
7 tn or “look.”
8 tn Some prefer to translate this term with the gender neutral “children,” but “sons” are plainly in view here, as the following verses make clear. Daughters are certainly wonderful additions to a family, but in ancient Israelite culture sons were the “arrows” that gave a man security in his old age, for they could defend the family interests at the city gate, where the legal and economic issues of the community were settled.
9 sn The metaphor of the fruitful vine pictures the wife as fertile; she will give her husband numerous children (see the next line).
10 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.