Psalms 126: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

This short psalm looks back at the time the LORD brought Zion's captives home, when the people were so glad it felt unreal, and other nations said the LORD had done great things for them. The singers then ask the LORD to restore them again, the way dry desert streambeds fill with water. The psalm closes with a picture of sowing and harvest: those who plant in tears will come home with shouts of joy, carrying their bundles of grain.

Claim by Claim

1. 126:1
   • This is a song of ascents.
   • The LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, restored its fortunes, or brought back its captives; the phrase carries both senses.
   • When that happened, we were like people who dream.
2. 126:2
   • Then our mouth was filled with laughter.
   • Then our tongue was filled with joyful shouting.
   • Then it was said among the nations, "The LORD has done great things for them."
3. 126:3
   • The LORD has done great things for us.
   • We are glad.
4. 126:4
   • The speaker asks the LORD to turn again our captivity, to restore our fortunes, or to bring back our captives.
   • The speaker asks that this restoration be like the streambeds in the Negev, the dry southern region.
5. 126:5
   • Those who sow in tears will reap with joyful shouting.
6. 126:6
   • He who goes out goes out weeping.
   • He carries a trail or pouch of seed as he goes.
   • He will surely come back with joyful shouting.
   • He will come back carrying his sheaves.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

126:1

"Zion" was originally the name of one hill in Jerusalem; in poetry it stands for the whole city and for the people who belong to it. The Hebrew phrase behind "turned again the captivity" is disputed: it can mean bringing exiles home from a foreign land, and it can mean reversing a people's fortunes more generally. Either sense fits here.

126:2

"Heathen" in the King James Version simply translates the ordinary Hebrew word for the nations, the peoples outside Israel. It carries no sense of savagery or irreligion; the modern insulting overtone came later.

126:4

"The south" is the Negev, the dry country south of Judah. Its riverbeds stay empty for most of the year, then fill in moments with fast, loud water after a rainstorm, the picture is of sudden, total change, not of a gradual improvement.

126:5

Farmers scattered seed by hand in the fall and waited months for the harvest. In a hungry year, planting meant burying grain your family could have eaten that day. That is why a farmer might weep while sowing.

126:6

"Precious seed" is grain kept back for planting. In a lean year that seed was also food a hungry family could have eaten, so scattering it in the ground was a real and painful cost. The Hebrew phrase is difficult and may instead describe a trail or bagful of seed being carried out.