¹ If the Lord does not build the house,
    it is useless for the builders to work hard over it.
If the Lord does not watch over the city,
    it is useless for the watchman to stand guard.
² It is useless for you to get up early and to work late,
worrying about bread to eat,
because God grants sleep to the one he loves. ^[1]
3 Indeed, children are a heritage from the Lord.
The fruit of the womb is a reward from him.
⁴ Sons born during one’s youth are like arrows
    in the hand of a warrior.
⁵ How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
    when they dispute with enemies at the city gate. ^[2]

¹ How blessed is everyone who fears the Lord,
everyone who is walking in his ways.
² Yes, you will eat the food you worked for.
How blessed you are! It will go well for you!
³ Your wife will be like a fruitful vine in the inner rooms of your house.
Your children will be like olive shoots around your table.
⁴ Look! This is how blessed the man is who fears the Lord!

⁵ May the Lord bless you from Zion,
so that you see the prosperity of Jerusalem,
all the days of your life,
⁶ and you see your children’s children.
Peace be on Israel.

¹ Greatly they have afflicted me from my youth—
let Israel say—
² greatly they have afflicted me from my youth,
yet they have not been able to defeat me.
³ On my back plowmen have plowed.
They made their furrows long.

⁴ The Lord is righteous.
He has cut the ropes of the wicked to pieces.
⁵ Let all who hate Zion be ashamed and turned back.
⁶ Let them be like grass on the roof,
    which withers even before it is pulled up.
⁷ The reaper cannot fill his hand with it.
The one who binds sheaves cannot fill his arms.
⁸ May those who pass by never say,
“The blessing of the Lord be with you.
We bless you in the name of the Lord.”