52:5 Yet 1 God will make you a permanent heap of ruins. 2
He will scoop you up 3 and remove you from your home; 4
he will uproot you from the land of the living. (Selah)
84:3 Even the birds find a home there,
and the swallow 5 builds a nest,
where she can protect her young 6
near your altars, O Lord who rules over all,
my king and my God.
127:2 It is vain for you to rise early, come home late,
and work so hard for your food. 7
Yes, 8 he can provide for those whom he loves even when they sleep. 9
1 tn The adverb גַּם (gam, “also; even”) is translated here in an adversative sense (“yet”). It highlights the contrastive correspondence between the evildoer’s behavior and God’s response.
2 tn Heb “will tear you down forever.”
3 tn This rare verb (חָתָה, khatah) occurs only here and in Prov 6:27; 25:22; Isa 30:14.
4 tn Heb “from [your] tent.”
5 tn The word translated “swallow” occurs only here and in Prov 26:2.
6 tn Heb “even a bird finds a home, and a swallow a nest for herself, [in] which she places her young.”
sn The psalmist here romanticizes the temple as a place of refuge and safety. As he thinks of the birds nesting near its roof, he envisions them finding protection in God’s presence.
7 tn Heb “[it is] vain for you, you who are early to rise, who delay sitting, who eat the food of hard work.” The three substantival participles are parallel and stand in apposition to the pronominal suffix on the preposition. See לָכֶם (lakhem, “for you”).
8 tn Here the Hebrew particle כֵּן (ken) is used to stress the following affirmation (see Josh 2:4; Ps 63:2).
9 tn Heb “he gives to his beloved, sleep.” The translation assumes that the Hebrew term שֵׁנָא (shena’, “sleep,” an alternate form of שֵׁנָה, shenah) is an adverbial accusative. The point seems to be this: Hard work by itself is not what counts, but one’s relationship to God, for God is able to bless an individual even while he sleeps. (There may even be a subtle allusion to the miracle of conception following sexual intercourse; see the reference to the gift of sons in the following verse.) The statement is not advocating laziness, but utilizing hyperbole to give perspective and to remind the addressees that God must be one’s first priority. Another option is to take “sleep” as the direct object: “yes, he gives sleep to his beloved” (cf. NIV, NRSV). In this case the point is this: Hard work by itself is futile, for only God is able to bless one with sleep, which metonymically refers to having one’s needs met. He blesses on the basis of one’s relationship to him, not on the basis of physical energy expended.