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:
Parallel translations
- WEB Then our sons will be like well-nurtured plants, our daughters like pillars carved to adorn a palace.
- BSB Then our sons will be like plants nurtured in their youth, our daughters like corner pillars carved to adorn 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 128:3Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table.
- 1 Pet 3:3–6Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;
- Isa 44:3–5For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring:
- Ps 115:14–15The LORD shall increase you more and more, you and your children.
- Job 42:15And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren.
- Song 8:8–9We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for?
- Lam 4:2The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
- Ps 127:4–5As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.
- Isa 3:16–24Moreover the LORD saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet:
- Prov 31:10–27Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above 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.