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Psalm 127 · a question people ask

"For he gives sleep to his loved ones" (127:2). Is sleep the gift, or does he give to his loved ones while they sleep?

In the text

In Hebrew the line is four words: ken, yitten, lidido, shena. Brown-Driver-Briggs gives ken as "so" (the WEB has for), and natan, the verb of yitten, as "give, put, set". Lidido is to his beloved, singular in Hebrew, though the WEB has his loved ones (tap loved ones). And shena, the line's last word, is "sleep" in Brown-Driver-Briggs (tap sleep). There is no word for in or while in the line. The WEB takes sleep as what he gives. The verse says no more, and these notes don't choose between hearing sleep as the gift and hearing the line as a gift given while his loved ones sleep. Two other psalms have sleep and the LORD in one verse: "I laid myself down and slept. I awakened, for the LORD sustains me" (Psalm 3:5), and "In peace I will both lay myself down and sleep, for you alone, LORD, make me live in safety" (Psalm 4:8).

The verses

“It is vain for you to rise up early, to stay up late, eating the bread of toil, for he gives sleep to his loved ones.”
Psalm 127:2 · World English Bible
“I laid myself down and slept. I awakened, for the LORD sustains me.”
Psalm 3:5 · World English Bible
“In peace I will both lay myself down and sleep, for you alone, LORD, make me live in safety.”
Psalm 4:8 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Psalm 127

Psalm 127: Unless the LORD builds the house

Psalm 127 says vain three times in two verses (127:1-2), and no other psalm has that Hebrew word more than twice. The watchman's guards is a verb Strong's gives as "to be alert, i.e. sleepless", and the next verse ends with sleep, given to his loved ones (127:2). Then children are called a heritage of the LORD, and the fruit of the womb a reward, a Hebrew word for wages (127:3).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions