Psalms 126
What Happens in This Chapter
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.
When the LORD brought Zion's captives back home, it felt to us like a dream.
1When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
"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.
2Then our mouths were full of laughter, and our tongues sang out loud. Then the other nations said, "The LORD has done great things for them."
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.
"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.
3The LORD has done great things for us, and we are full of joy.
3The LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad.
4Bring our captives back again, LORD, the way water rushes into the dry streambeds of the southern desert.
4Turn again our captivity, O LORD, as the streams in the south.
"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.
5Those who plant their seed while weeping will bring in the harvest with shouts of joy.
5They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
6The one who goes out crying, carrying seed to plant, will surely come back singing for joy, carrying bundles of cut grain.
6He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
"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.
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