Then our sons will be like plants nurtured in their youth, our daughters like corner pillars carved to adorn a palace.
Parallel translations
- WEB Then our sons will be like well-nurtured plants, our daughters like pillars carved to adorn a palace.
- KJV That 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:
- NKJV That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; That our daughters may be as pillars, Sculptured in palace style;
- NASB ¶When our sons in their youth are like growing plants, And our daughters like corner pillars fashioned for a palace,
- NLT May our sons flourish in their youth like well-nurtured plants. May our daughters be like graceful pillars, carved to beautify a palace.
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
David envisions sons like flourishing plants and daughters like carved palace pillars. It pictures the blessing of a thriving, godly community.
Overview
Turning to the fruit of deliverance, David imagines a blessed society with healthy, well-formed children, sons and daughters strong and beautiful. This depicts the wholeness God's salvation brings to families and nations. Such flourishing foreshadows the abundant life and fruitfulness found in Christ's kingdom (John 15:5).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Ps 128:3Your wife will be like a fruitful vine flourishing within your house, your sons like olive shoots sitting around your table.
- 1 Pet 3:3–6Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair or gold jewelry or fine clothes,
- Isa 44:3–5For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and currents on the dry ground. I will pour out My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring.
- Ps 115:14–15May the LORD give you increase, both you and your children.
- Job 42:15No women as beautiful as Job’s daughters could be found in all the land, and their father granted them an inheritance among their brothers.
- Song 8:8–9We have a little sister, and her breasts are not yet grown. What shall we do for our sister on the day she is spoken for?
- Lam 4:2How the precious sons of Zion, once worth their weight in pure gold, are now esteemed as jars of clay, the work of a potter’s hands!
- Ps 127:4–5Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are children born in one’s youth.
- Isa 3:16–24The LORD also says: “Because the daughters of Zion are haughty—walking with heads held high and wanton eyes, prancing and skipping as they go, jingling the bracelets on their ankles—
- Prov 31:10–27A wife of noble character, who can find? She is far more precious than rubies.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 144:12 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.