Psalms 115:14-15

115:14 May he increase your numbers,

yours and your children’s! ¹ 

115:15 May you be blessed by the Lord,

the creator ²  of heaven and earth!

Psalms 127:4-5

127:4 Sons born during one’s youth

are like arrows in a warrior’s hand. ³ 

127:5 How blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!

They will not be put to shame ⁴  when they confront ⁵  enemies at the city gate.

Psalms 128:3

128:3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine ⁶ 

in the inner rooms of your house;

your children ⁷  will be like olive branches,

as they sit all around your table.

Isaiah 44:3-5

44:3 For I will pour water on the parched ground ⁸ 

and cause streams to flow ⁹  on the dry land.

I will pour my spirit on your offspring

and my blessing on your children.

44:4 They will sprout up like a tree in the grass, ¹⁰ 

like poplars beside channels of water.

44:5 One will say, ‘I belong to the Lord,’

and another will use ¹¹  the name ‘Jacob.’

One will write on his hand, ‘The Lord’s,’

and use the name ‘Israel.’” ¹² 

Lamentations 4:2

ב (Bet)

4:2 The precious sons of Zion

were worth their weight in gold –

Alas! – but now they are treated like ¹³  broken clay pots,

made by a potter. ¹⁴ 

[115:14]  ¹ tn Heb “may he add to you, to you and your sons.” The prefixed verbal form is jussive, indicating this is a prayer.

[115:15]  ² tn Or “maker.”

[127:4]  ³ tn Heb “like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so [are] sons of youth.” Arrows are used in combat to defend oneself against enemies; sons are viewed here as providing social security and protection (see v. 5). The phrase “sons of youth” is elliptical, meaning “sons [born during the father’s] youth.” Such sons will have grown up to be mature adults and will have children of their own by the time the father reaches old age and becomes vulnerable to enemies. Contrast the phrase “son of old age” in Gen 37:3 (see also 44:20), which refers to Jacob’s age when Joseph was born.

[127:5]  ⁴ tn Being “put to shame” is here metonymic for being defeated, probably in a legal context, as the reference to the city gate suggests. One could be humiliated (Ps 69:12) or deprived of justice (Amos 5:12) at the gate, but with strong sons to defend the family interests this was less likely to happen.

[127:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “speak with.”

[128:3]  ⁶ sn The metaphor of the fruitful vine pictures the wife as fertile; she will give her husband numerous children (see the next line).

[128:3]  ⁷ 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.

[44:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “the thirsty.” Parallelism suggests that dry ground is in view (see “dry land” in the next line.)

[44:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “and streams”; KJV “floods.” The verb “cause…to flow” is supplied in the second line for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

[44:4]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew term בֵין (ven) is usually taken as a preposition, in which case one might translate, “among the grass.” But בֵין is probably the name of a tree (cf. C. R. North, Second Isaiah, 133). If one alters the preposition bet (בְּ) to kaf (כְּ), one can then read, “like a binu-tree.” (The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a supports this reading.) This forms a nice parallel to “like poplars” in the next line. חָצִיר (khatsir) is functioning as an adverbial accusative of location.

[44:5]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew text has a Qal verb form, “and another will call by the name of Jacob.” With support from Symmachus (an ancient Greek textual witness), some read the Niphal, “and another will be called by the name of Jacob.”

[44:5]  ¹² tn Heb “and by the name of Israel he will title.” Some, with support from several ancient versions, prefer to change the Piel (active) verb form to a Pual (passive), “and he will be titled by the name of Israel.”

[4:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “they are regarded as.”

[4:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the work of the hands of a potter.”