Psalms
Chapter 126
This short psalm remembers the time when the LORD brought his people home from captivity, and how it felt too good to be real. Other nations noticed and said that the LORD had done great things for Israel. The second half turns into a prayer asking God to bring the people back again, and it compares that hope to dry desert riverbeds filling with water, and to a farmer who cries while planting but sings while gathering the harvest.
Plain reading written for preteens. Clear and complete, at about a fifth grade reading level.
When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
1When the LORD brought Zion's people back home from captivity, it felt like we were dreaming.
"Captivity" here means being carried off to a foreign land as prisoners. Zion is another name for Jerusalem and its people.
2Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The LORD hath done great things for them.
2Then we laughed out loud, and our songs poured out. People in other nations said, "The LORD has done great things for them."
3The LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad.
3Yes, the LORD has done great things for us, and we are full of joy.
4Turn again our captivity, O LORD, as the streams in the south.
4Bring our people back again, LORD, the way dry desert streams fill up with water.
"The streams in the south" means the dry riverbeds of the Negev desert. They are empty most of the year, then suddenly run full when the rains come.
5They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
5People who plant their seed while crying will gather the harvest while shouting for joy.
6He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
6A man may go out weeping as he carries seed to plant. He will surely come home singing, his arms full of grain.
"Precious seed" means the grain a farmer must plant instead of eat. "Sheaves" are bundles of cut grain stalks tied together at harvest.
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