Psalms 127:2
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.
WEB
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.
KJV
What Psalms 127:2 means
You can wake before dawn, work past dark, and swallow anxious bread, and still gain nothing on your own strength, because rest itself is a gift God hands to those he loves.
Psalm 127 opens with a hinge that governs everything after it: "Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain." Verse 2 pulls that principle into daily life, aiming it at the person who rises early, stays up late, and eats "the bread of toil," meaning bread earned through grinding worry. The psalm sets trust beside striving and asks which one is actually holding your life together.
This is one of the Songs of Ascents, sung by pilgrims climbing the road up to Jerusalem, and it carries a wisdom-psalm flavor. Attributed to Solomon, it lingers on the ordinary weight of labor, the building of a household, and the arrival of children, all treated as gift rather than achievement. The pilgrim setting matters: people walking away from their fields toward worship were being reminded who the real provider was.
The closing Hebrew phrase is genuinely open. It can mean "he gives sleep to his beloved," so that rest is the gift, or "he gives to his beloved even in their sleep," so that provision quietly arrives while they rest. The word for beloved is *yedid*, tender and personal, and the word for sleep is *shena*. Either reading lands the same blow against frantic self-reliance.
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