In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for bread to eat—for He gives sleep to His beloved.
Parallel translations
- WEB 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.
- KJV It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.
- NKJV It is vain for you to rise up early, To sit up late, To eat the bread of sorrows; For so He gives His beloved sleep.
- NASB It is futile for you to rise up early, To stay up late, To eat the bread of painful labor; This is how He gives to His beloved sleep.
- NLT It is useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, anxiously working for food to eat; for God gives rest to his loved ones.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Anxious overwork is vain, for God provides for His beloved even as they sleep. It frees believers from frantic striving into restful trust.
Overview
The psalm warns against the anxious toil of rising early and staying up late in worry, since God grants provision and even rest to those He loves. Restful sleep becomes a sign of trusting God's care rather than one's own labor. In Christ we find true rest, ceasing from striving to earn what God freely gives.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Eccl 5:12The sleep of the worker is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of the rich man permits him no sleep.
- Ps 4:8I will lie down and sleep in peace, for You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.
- Job 11:18You will be secure, because there is hope, and you will look around and lie down in safety.
- Ps 3:5I lie down and sleep; I wake again, for the LORD sustains me.
- Jer 31:26At this I awoke and looked around. My sleep had been most pleasant to me.
- Eccl 2:20–23So my heart began to despair over all the labor that I had done under the sun.
- Ezek 34:25I will make with them a covenant of peace and rid the land of wild animals, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the forest.
- Eccl 1:14I have seen all the things that are done under the sun, and have found them all to be futile, a pursuit of the wind.
- Prov 31:15–18She rises while it is still night to provide food for her household and portions for her maidservants.
- Eccl 6:7All a man’s labor is for his mouth, yet his appetite is never satisfied.
- Ps 39:5–6You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah
- Eccl 4:8There is a man all alone, without even a son or brother. And though there is no end to his labor, his eyes are still not content with his wealth: “For whom do I toil and bereave my soul of enjoyment?” This too is futile—a miserable task.
- Eccl 2:1–11I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy what is good!” But it proved to be futile.
- Ps 60:5Respond and save us with Your right hand, that Your beloved may be delivered.
- Acts 12:5–6So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was fervently praying to God for him.
- Gen 3:17–19And to Adam He said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 127:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.