Discovery BoxPsalms 128:2-6 
Context128:2 You 1 will eat what you worked so hard to grow. 2
You will be blessed and secure. 3
128:3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine 4
in the inner rooms of your house;
your children 5 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. 6
128:5 May the Lord bless you 7 from Zion,
that you might see 8 Jerusalem 9 prosper
all the days of your life,
128:6 and that you might see 10 your grandchildren. 11
May Israel experience peace! 12
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.”
4 sn The metaphor of the fruitful vine pictures the wife as fertile; she will give her husband numerous children (see the next line).
5 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.
6 tn Heb “look, indeed thus will the man, the fearer of the
7 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.
8 tn The imperative with prefixed vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the preceding jussive.
9 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
10 tn The imperative with prefixed vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the jussive in v. 5a.
11 tn Heb “sons to your sons.”
12 tn Heb “peace [be] upon Israel.” The statement is understood as a prayer (see Ps 125:5).
