Verse Lens · Concise explanation
Psalms 128:2 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 2. 2For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Psalm 128:2: The reason or consequence in “For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands” supports the surrounding claim in “Household flourishing under fear of the LORD.”
Read It With
- Psalms 128:1–6
Read Psalms 128:2 with 128:1–6. Read alone, “For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands” could lose the communal voice, the parallel line or movement it develops, and the psalm's outcome. The complete movement establishes: Within Psalms 128:1–6, the communal voice carries the movement “Household flourishing under fear of the LORD” as part of “Household flourishing under fear of the LORD.” Its song-of-ascents-wisdom form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Psalms 128:1–6 opens Psalm 128 with “Blessed is every one that feareth the LORD; that walketh in his ways” and establishes the communal voice and “Household flourishing under fear of the LORD” movement before later lines develop or answer it. Within that relationship, Psalm 128:2 supplies a reason or consequence through “For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands” and must be read with the claim it supports.
What Remains True
The verse's role is specific—Psalm 128:2 supplies a reason or consequence through “For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands” and must be read with the claim it supports. Within that role, People in households and communities bear dignity beyond productivity, fertility, gender role, status, or usefulness; gifts of relationship never make another person property. The local movement is “Household flourishing under fear of the LORD.” The unit's reviewed limit is: The ancient agrarian household portrait is blessing poetry, not a universal gender script, fertility guarantee, or measure of spiritual worth.
How It Can Shape Life
- The practice should match “Household flourishing under fear of the LORD” rather than an isolated slogan. Psalm 128:2 supplies a reason or consequence through “For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands” and must be read with the claim it supports. Therefore, Receive the person named or implied by “For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands” as a gift with agency and dignity, never as property, status, labor, fertility proof, or a weapon in family conflict.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Psalms 128:1–6 — Household flourishing under fear of the LORDSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Psalms 128:1–6, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Psalms
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ps.xml, OSIS 128:1–6
Open the fixed Hebrew Psalms file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible Notes: Psalms 1-150
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, current official online edition
Supports: Verse-level controls for poetic syntax, imagery, older KJV language, textual issues, headings, and alternatives in Psalms 128:1–6.
Exact location: Official NET Bible Psalm 128 HTML, translator, textual, and study notes attached to Psalms 128:1–6
Open the official NET Psalms notes ↗