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Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table.
Psalms 128:3 · King James Version
Parallel translations
  • WEB Your wife will be as a fruitful vine, in the innermost parts of your house; your children like olive plants, around your table.
  • BSB Your wife will be like a fruitful vine flourishing within your house, your sons like olive shoots sitting around your table.
  • NKJV Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine In the very heart of your house, Your children like olive plants All around your table.
  • NASB Your wife will be like a fruitful vine Within your house, Your children like olive plants Around your table.
  • NLT Your wife will be like a fruitful grapevine, flourishing within your home. Your children will be like vigorous young olive trees as they sit around your table.

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

His wife is like a fruitful vine and his children like olive shoots around the table. It portrays a flourishing, God-blessed household as part of the good life.

Overview

The picture of blessing extends to a fruitful wife and children gathered at the family table, images of vitality, growth, and joyful fellowship. The home becomes a place where God's favor is visibly enjoyed. While not every believer receives this in the same measure, it reflects God's good design and points to the abundant life found in Christ.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 9

  • Ezek 19:10Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood, planted by the waters: she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.
  • Ps 52:8But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.
  • Rom 11:24For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree?
  • Gen 49:22Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall:
  • Prov 5:15–18Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
  • Jer 11:16The LORD called thy name, A green olive tree, fair, and of goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he hath kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken.
  • Hos 14:6–7His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.
  • Ps 144:12That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace:
  • Ps 127:5Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (5)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Psalms videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Psalms 128:3YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on PsalmsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    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 128:3 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.