127 Except Jehovah build the house,
They labor in vain that build it:
Except Jehovah keep the city,
The watchman waketh but in vain.
² It is vain for you to rise up early,
To take rest late,
To eat the bread of toil;
For so he giveth unto his beloved ^[a]sleep.
³ Lo, children are a heritage of Jehovah;
And the fruit of the womb is his reward.
⁴ As arrows in the hand of a mighty man,
So are the children of youth.
⁵ Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them:
They shall not be put to shame,
When they speak with their enemies in the gate.

128 Blessed is every one that feareth Jehovah,
That walketh in his ways.
² For thou shalt eat the labor of thy hands:
Happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.
³ Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine,
In the innermost parts of thy house;
Thy children like olive plants,
Round about thy table.
⁴ Behold, thus shall the man be blessed
That feareth Jehovah.
⁵ Jehovah bless thee out of Zion:
And see thou the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life.
⁶ Yea, see thou thy children’s children.
^[b]Peace be upon Israel.

^[c]129 Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth up,
Let Israel now say,
^2 [d]Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth up:
Yet they have not prevailed against me.
³ The plowers plowed upon my back;
They made long their furrows.
⁴ Jehovah is righteous:
He hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked.
⁵ Let them be put to shame and turned backward,
All they that hate Zion.
⁶ Let them be as the grass upon the housetops,
Which withereth before it ^[e]groweth up;
⁷ Wherewith the reaper filleth not his hand,
Nor he that bindeth sheaves, his bosom:
⁸ Neither do they that go by say,
The blessing of Jehovah be upon you;
We bless you in the name of Jehovah.