Mazmur 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!

Mazmur 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 

Mazmur 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 

[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.”