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Selected Verse: Psalms 128:1 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Ps 128:1 |
King James |
A Song of degrees. Blessed is every one that feareth the LORD; that walketh in his ways. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
The temporal blessings of true piety. The eighth chapter of Zecariah is a virtual commentary on this Psalm. Compare Psa 128:3 with Zac 8:5; and Psa 128:2 with Lev 26:16; Deu 28:33; Zac 8:10; and Psa 128:6 with Zac 8:4. (Psa 128:1-6)
(Compare Psa 1:1). |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord - That honors God; that is truly pious. See the notes at Psa 1:1; Psa 112:1. What that blessedness is, is indicated in the following verses.
That walketh in his ways - The ways which God commands or directs. On the word "walketh," see the notes at Psa 1:1. |
| Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
The כּי in Psa 128:2 signifies neither "for" (Aquila, κόπον τῶν ταρσῶν σου ὅτι φάγεσαι), nor "when" (Symmachus, κόπον χειρῶν σου ἐωθίων); it is the directly affirmative כּי, which is sometimes thus placed after other words in a clause (Psa 118:10-12, Gen 18:20; Gen 41:32). The proof in favour of this asseverating כּי is the very usual כּי עתּה in the apodoses of hypothetical protases, or even כּי־אז in Job 11:15, or also only כּי in Isa 7:9, Sa1 14:39; "surely then;" the transition from the confirmative to the affirmative signification is evident from Psa 128:4 of the Psalm before us. To support one's self by one's own labour is a duty which even a Paul did not wish to avoid (Act 20:34), and so it is a great good fortune (טוב לך as in Psa 119:71) to eat the produce of the labour of one's own hands (lxx , τοὺς καρποὺς τῶν πόνων, or according to an original reading, τοὺς πὸνους τῶν καρπῶν);
(Note: The fact that the τῶν καρπῶν of the lxx here, as in Pro 31:20, is intended to refer to the hands is noted by Theodoret and also by Didymus (in Rosenmuller): καρποὺς φησὶνῦν ὡς ἀπὸ μέρους τὰς χεῖρας (i.e., per synecdochen partis pro toto), τουτέστι τῶν πρακτικῶν σου δυνάμεων φάγεσαι τοὺς πόνους.)
For he who can make himself useful to others and still is also independent of them, he eats the bread of blessing which God gives, which is sweeter than the bread of charity which men give. In close connection with this is the prosperity of a house that is at peace and contented within itself, of an amiable and tranquil and hopeful (rich in hope) family life. "Thy wife (אשׁתּך, found only here, for אשׁתּך) is as a fruit-producing vine." פּריּה for פּרה, from פּרה = פּרי, with the Jod of the root retained, like בוכיּה, Lam 1:16. The figure of the vine is admirably suited to the wife, who is a shoot or sprig of the husband, and stands in need of the man's support as the vine needs a stick or the wall of a house (pergula). בּירכּתי ביתך does not belong to the figure, as Kimchi is of opinion, who thinks of a vine starting out of the room and climbing up in the open air outside. What is meant is the angle, corner, or nook (ירכּתי, in relation to things and artificial, equivalent to the natural ירכי), i.e., the background, the privacy of the house, where the housewife, who is not to be seen much out of doors, leads a quiet life, entirely devoted to the happiness of her husband and her family. The children springing from such a nobel vine, planted around the family table, are like olive shoots or cuttings; cf. in Euripides, Medea, 1098: τέκνων ἐν οἴκοις γλυκερὸν βλάστημα, and Herc. Fur. 839: καλλίπαις στέφανος. thus fresh as young layered small olive-trees and thus promising are they. |
1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
1 A Song of degrees. Blessed is every one that feareth the LORD; that walketh in his ways.
2 For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.
3 Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table.
4 Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the LORD.
5 The LORD shall bless thee out of Zion: and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life.
6 Yea, thou shalt see thy children's children, and peace upon Israel.
4 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand for very age.
6 Yea, thou shalt see thy children's children, and peace upon Israel.
10 For before these days there was no hire for man, nor any hire for beast; neither was there any peace to him that went out or came in because of the affliction: for I set all men every one against his neighbour.
33 The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway:
16 I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.
2 For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.
5 And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof.
3 Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table.
1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
1 Praise ye the LORD. Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, that delighteth greatly in his commandments.
1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
16 For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed.
20 She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.
71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.
34 Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me.
4 Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the LORD.
39 For, as the LORD liveth, which saveth Israel, though it be in Jonathan my son, he shall surely die. But there was not a man among all the people that answered him.
9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son. If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.
15 For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot; yea, thou shalt be stedfast, and shalt not fear:
32 And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice; it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.
20 And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;
10 All nations compassed me about: but in the name of the LORD will I destroy them.
11 They compassed me about; yea, they compassed me about: but in the name of the LORD I will destroy them.
12 They compassed me about like bees; they are quenched as the fire of thorns: for in the name of the LORD I will destroy them.
2 For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.