Psalm 127 · a question people ask
"Unless the LORD builds the house" (127:1). Is the house a building, or a family?
The verse doesn't say, and the Hebrew word can mean either. Brown-Driver-Briggs gives bayit as "house", and also "household, family" (tap house). Strong's gives the verb build as "to build (literally and figuratively)", and among the ways it is rendered, "obtain children" (tap builds). Here is what the text shows. In Psalm 127:1 the house has builders who labor, and beside it is a city with a watchman. The second half of the psalm speaks of children (Psalm 127:3-5). Elsewhere the same two Hebrew words, build and house, are said of buildings: "They will build houses and inhabit them" (Isaiah 65:21). And they are said of a family: "like Rachel and like Leah, which both built the house of Israel" (Ruth 4:11). Sarai uses the verb alone of children: "It may be that I will obtain children by her" (Genesis 16:2). The psalm names no particular house, and these notes don't give it one, or choose between reading the house as a building, a household, or both.
The verses
“A Song of Ascents. By Solomon. Unless the LORD builds the house, they who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman guards it in vain.”
“Behold, children are a heritage of the LORD. The fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. They won’t be disappointed when they speak with their enemies in the gate.”
“They will build houses and inhabit them. They will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.”
“All the people who were in the gate, and the elders, said, “We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman who has come into your house like Rachel and like Leah, which both built the house of Israel; and treat you worthily in Ephrathah, and be famous in Bethlehem.”