Psalm 127:5

Verse 5. Quiver full. Many children make many prayers, and many prayers bring much blessing. --German Proverb.

Verse 5. The Rev. Moses Browne had twelve children. On one remarking to him, "Sir, you have just as many children as Jacob", he replied, "Yes, and I have Jacob's God to provide for them." --G. S. Bowes.

Verse 5. I remember a great man coming into my house, at Waltham, and seeing all my children standing in the order of their age and stature, said, "These are they that make rich men poor." But he straight received this answer, "Nay, my lord, these are they that make a poor man rich; for there is not one of these whom we would part with for all your wealth." It is easy to observe that none are so gripple and hard fisted as the childless; whereas those, who, for the maintenance of large families, are inured to frequent disbursements, find such experience of Divine providence in the faithful management of their affairs, as that they lay out with more cheerfulness what they receive. Wherein their care must be abated when God takes it off from them to himself; and, if they be not wanting to themselves, their faith gives them ease in casting their burden upon him, who hath more power and more right to it, since our children are more his than our own. He that feedeth the young ravens, can he fail the best of his creatures? --Joseph Hall, 1574-1656.

Verse 5. They shall not be ashamed, etc. Able enough he shall be to defend himself, and keep off all injuries, being fortified by his children; and if it happen that he hath a cause depending in the gate, and to be tried before the judges, he shall have the patronage of his children, and not suffer in his plea for want of advocates; his sons will stand up in a just cause for him. --William Nicholson (1671), in "David's Harp Strung and Tuned"

Verse 5. But they shall speak. "But destroy" is the marginal version, and is here much more emphatic than the rendering "speak." For this sense see 2 Chronicles 22:10 . Others refer it to litigation, when they shall successfully defend the cause of their parents. But as I do not see how their number or rigour could add weight to their evidence in a judicial cause, I prefer the sense given. --Benjamin Boothroyd, 1768-1836.

Verse 5. With the enemies in the gate. Probably the Psalmist alludes here to the defence of a besieged city; the gate was very commonly the point of attack, and the taking of it rendered the conquest of the place easy: compare Genesis 22:17 23:60. --Daniel Cresswell (1776-1844), in "The Psalms ...with Critical and Explanatory Notes," 1843.

Verse 5. --

--Sophocles' "Antigone." R. Potter's Translation.