Psalm 127:2 {126:2}
Good News Translation
It is useless to work so hard for a living, getting up early and going to bed late. For the LORD provides for those he loves, while they are asleep.

New Revised Standard Version
It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives sleep to his beloved.

Contemporary English Version
It is useless to get up early and stay up late in order to earn a living. God takes care of his own, even while they sleep.

New American Bible
It is vain for you to rise early and put off your rest at night, To eat bread earned by hard toil— all this God gives to his beloved in sleep.

Douay-Rheims Bible
It is vain for you to rise before light, rise ye after you have sitten, you that eat the bread of sorrow. When he shall give sleep to his beloved,

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

It is vain for you to rise before light, rise ye after you have sitten, you that eat the bread of sorrow. When he shall give sleep to his beloved,

vain

Psalm 39:5,6 Behold thou hast made my days measurable. and my substance is as nothing before thee. And indeed all things are vanity: every man living. . . .

Ecclesiastes 1:14 I have seen all things that are done under the sun, and behold all is vanity, and vexation of spirit.

Ecclesiastes 2:1-11,20-23 I said in my heart: I will go, and abound with delights, and enjoy good things. And I saw that this also was vanity. . . .

Ecclesiastes 4:8 There is but one, and he hath not a second, no child, no brother, and yet he ceaseth not to labour, neither are his eyes satisfied with riches, neither doth he reflect, saying: For whom do I labour, and defraud my soul of good things? in this also is vanity, and a grievous vexation.

rise up

Proverbs 31:15-18 And she hath risen in the night, and given a prey to her household, and victuals to her maidens. . . .

the bread

Genesis 3:17-19 And to Adam he said: Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee, that thou shouldst not eat, cursed is the earth in thy work: with labour and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life. . . .

Ecclesiastes 6:7 All the labour of man is for his mouth, but his soul shall not be filled.

for so he

Psalm 3:5 I have slept and have taken my rest: and I have risen up, because the Lord hath protected me.

Psalm 4:8 In peace in the self same I will sleep, and I will rest: [10] For thou, O Lord, singularly hast settled me in hope.

Ecclesiastes 5:12 Sleep is sweet to a labouring man, whether he eat little or much: but the fulness of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.

Jeremiah 31:26 Upon this I was as it were awaked out of a sleep, and I saw, and my sleep was sweet to me.

Ezekiel 34:25 And I will make a covenant of peace with them, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they that dwell in the wilderness shall sleep secure in the forests.

Acts 12:5,6 Peter therefore was kept in prison. But prayer was made without ceasing by the church unto God for him. . . .

Context
Children are a Heritage From the LORD
1A gradual canticle of Solomon. Unless the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it. Unless the Lord keep the city, he watcheth in vain that keepeth it. 2It is vain for you to rise before light, rise ye after you have sitten, you that eat the bread of sorrow. When he shall give sleep to his beloved,3Behold the inheritance of the Lord are children: the reward, the fruit of the womb.…
Cross References
Genesis 3:17
And to Adam he said: Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee, that thou shouldst not eat, cursed is the earth in thy work: with labour and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life.

Genesis 3:19
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return.

Job 11:18
And thou shalt have confidence, hope being set before thee, and being buried thou shalt sleep secure.

Job 11:19
Thou shalt rest, and there shall be none to make thee afraid: and many shall entreat thy face.

Psalm 39:6
Surely man passeth as an image: yea, and he is disquieted in vain. He storeth up: and he knoweth not for whom he shall gather these things.

Psalm 60:5
Save me with thy right hand, and hear me.

Proverbs 3:24
Be not afraid of sudden fear, nor of the power of the wicked falling upon thee.

Ecclesiastes 2:23
All his days are full of sorrows and miseries, even in the night he doth not rest in mind: and is not this vanity?

Ecclesiastes 5:12
Sleep is sweet to a labouring man, whether he eat little or much: but the fulness of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.

Ecclesiastes 5:17
All the days of his life he eateth in darkness, and in many cares, and in misery, and sorrow.

Psalm 127:1
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