Psalms 126:2
It is vain for you to rise before light, rise ye after you have sitten, you that eat the bread of sorrow. When he shall give sleep to his beloved,
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Vanum est vobis ante lucem surgere : surgite postquam sederitis, qui manducatis panem doloris. Cum dederit dilectis suis somnum,
- Septuagint (Swete)
- εἰς μάτην ἐστὶν ὑμῖν τοῦ ὀρθρίζειν, ἐγείρεσθαι μετὰ τὸ καθῆσθαι, οἱ ἔσθοντες ἄρτον ὀδύνης, ὅταν δῷ τοῖς ἀγαπητοῖς αὐτοῦ ὕπνον.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 127:2
- שָׁ֤וְא לָכֶ֨ם מַשְׁכִּ֪ימֵי ק֡וּם מְאַֽחֲרֵי שֶׁ֗בֶת אֹ֭כְלֵי לֶ֣חֶם הָעֲצָבִ֑ים כֵּ֤ן יִתֵּ֖ן לִֽידִיד֣וֹ שֵׁנָֽא
Haydock's commentary
Light. That is, your early rising, your labour and worldly solicitude, will be vain, that is, will avail you nothing, without the light, grace, and blessing of God. (Challoner)
Nehemias divided the people into companies, to prevent their being too much fatigued. (Calmet)
Without light it is impossible for man to work, John ix. 4. (Haydock)
The labours of those who live by the robbery of the distressed, are vain. (Chaldean)
Rise ye, is not in Hebrew. (Haydock)
Sitten. Allow yourselves proper time for rest, after your labours and sorrows: for his beloved, whom he favours with his grace, shall sleep and rest under his wing, and yet abound with offspring, and all blessings. (Challoner)
Sorrow. St. Jerome, "of idols." This worship of God is odious.
Beloved. Solomon. (Houbigant)
Yet some explain the Hebrew in the plural, as it is applicable to all the people. The Jews were under great alarms: but were encouraged to hope that God would protect them, and give them a numerous progeny; though, as the country was probably never so well peopled as under Solomon, this may rather refer to the elect, who after the sleep of death (Berthier) shall behold those whom Christ shall acknowledge for his children, (Haydock) and obtain an eternal reward. (St. Hilary)
Whatever people may think they have done well, without God's grace, is all useless, and they must begin again; whereas those who are guided by it, perform all with as much ease as they would sleep, and yet merit a reward, which is promised in heaven to the true children who are born to God in the Catholic Church. (Worthington)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm CXXVII
3. If we wish to be guarded by Him who was humbled for our sakes, and who was exalted to keep us, let us be humble. Let no one assume anything unto himself. No man hath any good, except he hath received it from Him who alone is good. But he who chooseth to arrogate wisdom unto himself, is a fool. Let him be humble, that wisdom may come, and may enlighten him. But if, before wisdom cometh unto him, he imagine that he is wise; he riseth before light, and walketh in darkness. What doth he hear in this Psalm? “It is but lost labour that ye haste to rise up before dawn” ( ver. 2 ). What meaneth this? If ye arise before light ariseth, ye must needs lose your labour, because ye will be in the dark. Our light, Christ, hath arisen; it is good for thee to rise after Christ, not to rise before Christ. Who rise before Christ? They who choose to prefer themselves to Christ. …
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Marcella
In reply to a request from Marcella for information concerning two phrases in Ps. cxxvii. (“bread of sorrow,” v. 2 , and “children of the shaken off,” A.V. “of the youth,” v. 4 ). Jerome, after lamenting that Origen’s notes on the psalm are no longer extant, gives the following explanations:
St Gregory Nazianzen On his Sister Gorgonia
22. Yet what was I on the point of omitting? But perhaps thou, who art her spiritual father, wouldst not have allowed me, and hast carefully concealed the wonder, and made it known to me. It is a great point for her distinction, and in our memory of her virtue, and regret for her departure. But trembling and tears have seized upon me, at the recollection of the wonder. She was just passing away, and at her last breath, surrounded by a group of relatives and friends performing the last offices of kindness, while her aged mother bent over her, with her soul convulsed with envy of her departure, anguish and affection being blended in the minds of all. …
St John Cassian The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults, Chapter IX. How we too may overcome pride
And so we can escape the snare of this most evil spirit, if in the case of every virtue in which we feel that we make progress, we say these words of the Apostle: “Not I, but the grace of God with me,” and “by the grace of God I am what I am;” and “it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” As the author of our salvation Himself also says: “If a man abide in me and I in him, the same beareth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing.” And “Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.” And “Vain is it for you to rise up before light.” For “it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that hath mercy.”