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 128:3-6

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

in the inner rooms of your house;

your children ⁴  will be like olive branches,

as they sit all around your table.

128:4 Yes indeed, the man who fears the Lord

will be blessed in this way. ⁵ 

128:5 May the Lord bless you ⁶  from Zion,

that you might see ⁷  Jerusalem ⁸  prosper

all the days of your life,

128:6 and that you might see ⁹  your grandchildren. ¹⁰ 

May Israel experience peace! ¹¹ 

Psalms 144:12

144:12 Then ¹²  our sons will be like plants,

that quickly grow to full size. ¹³ 

Our daughters will be like corner pillars, ¹⁴ 

carved like those in a palace. ¹⁵ 

Isaiah 44:3-5

44:3 For I will pour water on the parched ground ¹⁶ 

and cause streams to flow ¹⁷  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, ¹⁸ 

like poplars beside channels of water.

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

and another will use ¹⁹  the name ‘Jacob.’

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

and use the name ‘Israel.’” ²⁰ 

Jeremiah 30:19-20

30:19 Out of those places you will hear songs of thanksgiving ²¹ 

and the sounds of laughter and merriment.

I will increase their number and they will not dwindle away. ²² 

I will bring them honor and they will no longer be despised.

30:20 The descendants of Jacob will enjoy their former privileges.

Their community will be reestablished in my favor ²³ 

and I will punish all who try to oppress them.

Zechariah 8:3-5

8:3 The Lord says, ‘I have returned to Zion and will live within Jerusalem. ²⁴  Now Jerusalem will be called “truthful city,” “mountain of the Lord who rules over all,” “holy mountain.”’ 8:4 Moreover, the Lord who rules over all says, ‘Old men and women will once more live in the plazas of Jerusalem, each one leaning on a cane because of advanced age. 8:5 And the streets of the city will be full of boys and girls playing. ²⁵ 

Luke 19:42-44

19:42 saying, “If you had only known on this day, ²⁶  even you, the things that make for peace! ²⁷  But now they are hidden ²⁸  from your eyes. 19:43 For the days will come upon you when your enemies will build ²⁹  an embankment ³⁰  against you and surround you and close in on you from every side. 19:44 They will demolish you ³¹  – you and your children within your walls ³²  – and they will not leave within you one stone ³³  on top of another, ³⁴  because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.” ³⁵ 

[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.”

[128:3]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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.

[128:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “look, indeed thus will the man, the fearer of the Lord, be blessed.”

[128:5]  ⁶ tn The prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive of prayer (note the imperatives that are subordinated to this clause in vv. 5b-6a). Having described the blessings that typically come to the godly, the psalmist concludes by praying that this ideal may become reality for the representative godly man being addressed.

[128:5]  ⁷ tn The imperative with prefixed vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the preceding jussive.

[128:5]  ⁸ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[128:6]  ⁹ tn The imperative with prefixed vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the jussive in v. 5a.

[128:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “sons to your sons.”

[128:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “peace [be] upon Israel.” The statement is understood as a prayer (see Ps 125:5).

[144:12]  ¹² tn Some consider אֲשֶׁר (’asher) problematic, but here it probably indicates the anticipated consequence of the preceding request. (For other examples of אֲשֶׁר indicating purpose/result, see BDB 83 s.v. and HALOT 99 s.v.) If the psalmist – who appears to be a Davidic king preparing to fight a battle (see vv. 10-11) – is victorious, the whole nation will be spared invasion and defeat (see v. 14) and can flourish. Some prefer to emend the form to אַשְׁרֵי (“how blessed [are our sons]”). A suffixed noun sometimes follows אַשְׁרֵי (’ashrey; see 1 Kgs 10:8; Prov 20:7), but the presence of a comparative element (see “like plants”) after the suffixed noun makes the proposed reading too awkward syntactically.

[144:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “grown up in their youth.” The translation assumes that “grown up” modifies “plants” (just as “carved” modifies “corner pillars” in the second half of the verse). Another option is to take “grown up” as a predicate in relation to “our sons,” in which case one might translate, “they will be strapping youths.”

[144:12]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew noun occurs only here and in Zech 9:15, where it refers to the corners of an altar.

[144:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “carved [in] the pattern of a palace.”

[44:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the thirsty.” Parallelism suggests that dry ground is in view (see “dry land” in the next line.)

[44:3]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ 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.”

[30:19]  ²¹ tn Heb “Out of them will come thanksgiving and a sound of those who are playful.”

[30:19]  ²² sn Compare Jer 29:6.

[30:20]  ²³ tn Heb “his children will be as in former times and his congregation/community will be established before me.” “His children” refers to “Jacob” who has been referred to in v. 18 in the phrase “I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob.” “His children” are thus the restored exiles. Some commentaries see the reference here to the restoration of numbers in accordance with the previous verse. However, the last line of this verse and the reference to the ruler in the following verse suggests rather restoration of the religious and political institutions to their former state. For the use of the word translated “community” (עֵדָה, ’edah) to refer to a political congregation as well as its normal use to refer to a religious one see 1 Kgs 12:20. For the idea of “in my favor” (i.e., under the eye and regard of) for the Hebrew phrase used here (לְפָנַי, lÿfanay) see BDB 817 s.v. פָּנֶה II.4.a(b).

[8:3]  ²⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[8:5]  ²⁵ sn The references to longevity and to children living and playing in peace are eschatological in tone. Elsewhere the millennial kingdom is characterized in a similar manner (cf. Isa 65:20; Jer 31:12-13).

[19:42]  ²⁶ sn On this day. They had missed the time of Messiah’s coming; see v. 44.

[19:42]  ²⁷ tn Grk “the things toward peace.” This expression seems to mean “the things that would ‘lead to,’ ‘bring about,’ or ‘make for’ peace.”

[19:42]  ²⁸ sn But now they are hidden from your eyes. This becomes an oracle of doom in the classic OT sense; see Luke 13:31-35; 11:49-51; Jer 9:2; 13:7; 14:7. They are now blind and under judgment (Jer 15:5; Ps 122:6).

[19:43]  ²⁹ sn Jesus now predicted the events that would be fulfilled in the fall of Jerusalem in a.d. 70. The details of the siege have led some to see Luke writing this after Jerusalem’s fall, but the language of the verse is like God’s exilic judgment for covenant unfaithfulness (Hab 2:8; Jer 6:6, 14; 8:13-22; 9:1; Ezek 4:2; 26:8; Isa 29:1-4). Specific details are lacking and the procedures described (build an embankment against you) were standard Roman military tactics.

[19:43]  ³⁰ sn An embankment refers to either wooden barricades or earthworks, or a combination of the two.

[19:44]  ³¹ tn Grk “They will raze you to the ground.”

[19:44]  ³² tn Grk “your children within you.” The phrase “[your] walls” has been supplied in the translation to clarify that the city of Jerusalem, metaphorically pictured as an individual, is spoken of here.

[19:44]  ³³ sn (Not) one stone on top of another is an idiom for total destruction.

[19:44]  ³⁴ tn Grk “leave stone on stone.”

[19:44]  ³⁵ tn Grk “the time of your visitation.” To clarify what this refers to, the words “from God” are supplied at the end of the verse, although they do not occur in the Greek text.