Psalms 128:7
Wherewith the mower filleth not his hand: nor he that gathereth sheaves his bosom.
Open Psalms 128:7 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- de quo non implevit manum suam qui metit, et sinum suum qui manipulos colligit.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- οὗ οὐκ ἐπλήρωσεν τὴν χεῖρα αὐτοῦ ὁ θερίζων, καὶ τὸν κόλπον αὐτοῦ ὁ τὰ δράγματα συλλέγων·
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 129:7
- שֶׁלֹּ֤א מִלֵּ֖א כַפּ֥וֹ קוֹצֵ֗ר וְחִצְנ֥וֹ מְעַמֵּֽר
The Fathers on this verse
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm CXXIX
9. But what saith he of them? The next words are, “Let them be even as the grass of the house tops: that withereth before it be plucked up” ( ver. 6 ). The grass of the house tops is that which groweth on house tops, on a tiled roof: it is seen on high, and hath not a root. How much better would it be if it grew lower, and how much more joyfully would it bloom? As it is, it riseth higher to a quicker withering. It hath not yet been plucked up, yet hath it withered: not yet have they received sentence from the judgment of God, and already they have not the sap of bloom. Observe their works, and see that they have withered.…The reapers will come, but they fill not their sheaves from these. For the reapers will come, and will gather the wheat into the barn, and will bind the tares together, and cast them into the fire. …
St Gregory Nazianzen On His Father's Silence, Because of the Plague of Hail
6. Terrible is an unfruitful season, and the loss of the crops. It could not be otherwise, when men are already rejoicing in their hopes, and counting on their all but harvested stores. Terrible again is an unseasonable harvest, when the farmers labour with heavy hearts, sitting as it were beside the grave of their crops, which the gentle rain nourished, but the wild storm has rooted up, whereof the mower filleth not his hand, neither he that bindeth up the sheaves his bosom, nor have they obtained the blessing which passers-by bestow upon the farmers. …