Bellarmine on Psalm 126 : Verse 4

Verse 4

When he shall give sleep to his beloved, Behold the inheritance of the Lord are children: the reward, the fruit of the womb.

Cum dederit dilectis suis somnum, ecce haereditas Domini, filii; merces, fructus ventris.

After this exhortation and warning, the prophet adds a consolation, prophesying that it would come to pass after these tribulations that God will give peace and rest to His people; and that the children of Israel would be God’s inheritance, and they would be most powerful and most strong , so that they would never thereafter suffer anything from their enemies; this Prophecy looks to the new people, that is, the Church of Christ, of whom the temple and the city of Jerusalem were types. For, as St. Augustine shows in chapter xlv of book xviii in his City of God, after the restoration of the temple, everything became worse for the Jews, until the city was once more destroyed through Vespasian and Titus, and the temple was burned down. He says therefore: “When he shall give sleep to his beloved,” that is, when the Lord shall have given peace and rest to His people, sending them the true Solomon, who will found and extend the true temple, that is, His Church, and He will also subject all those rulers of the earth to it. “ Behold the inheritance of the Lord, the reward, the fruit of the womb,” that is, behold it will appear that the inheritance of the Lord will be numerous children, as it says in Psalm II: “Ask of me, and I will give thee the Gentiles for thy inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession;”[1] and “the reward” of Christ the Lord will be “ the fruit of the womb,” namely numerous children, as it says in Isai. LIII: “If he shall lay down his life for sin, he shall see a long-lived seed.”[2] For, as we have often shown, the same idea is in the Psalms frequently repeated twice. And so the same is 

meant by  the inheritance of the Lord and the reward, the fruit of the womb, that is, the inheritance of Christ the Lord and the reward will be numerous children, who are nothing other than the fruit of the the womb. This explanation conforms to the Hebrew text where the word fruit is in the nominative and not the genitive; but in the Greek edition the word fruit is in the genitive, and so according to the Greek codex the sense will be, the multitude of children will be the inheritance of the Lord and the reward of Christ, who was truly and properly the fruit of the womb, since he had His origin not from a man but from the Virgin alone; and this is perhaps the truer explanation since the Hebrew word can, if the points are changed, be read in the genitive but the Greek word cannot be read in the nominative. Hence, if all the codices are to be harmonised, this second interpretation may be preferred. For if the Psalm is explained according to the higher sense, in this verse is prophesied the happiness of the heavenly Jerusalem, which awaits those who, after the temporary sleep of death, have hastened with steps of love and faith to go up to their eternal homeland. He therefore says: “When he shall give sleep to his beloved,” that is, when after various labours and struggles, God shall give to all his beloved, the leaders who built up the Church as well as the ordinary faithful who built up a home for themselves through their good works, the sleep of a blessed death, “Behold the inheritance of the Lord are children: the reward, the fruit of the womb,” that is, then shall appear on the day of the last judgement that the children of God are the inheritance of that same God, because then the beloved will attain eternal salvation and they will pass over into the eternal possession and inheritance of God; and these same children will be the reward of Christ, who is the “fruit of the womb,” because the salvation of the elect is the reward of Christ; for He is the one who earned grace and glory for his beloved by suffering and dying. It is not of great significance that the Hebrew reads as thus will he give sleep  to his beloved, instead of what we have in the Greek and Latin versions, When he shall give sleep to his beloved;  for the Hebrew particle means many things, thus, truly, then, etc. And so it can be translated, then shall he give, that is, after those tribulations he will give, and the sense remains the same; but the words to his beloved (sing.) can be read as to his beloved (plural); and this is how the Septuagint and St. Jerome read the text; they had codices without the points that the Rabbis added later; and if of necessity it were to be read as to his beloved (singular), we would explain this as meaning to each one of his beloved, or to his beloved people, which is the same as what we have, to his beloved (plural). 

[1] Ask of me, and I will give thee the Gentiles for thy inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession. Postula a me, et dabo tibi gentes haereditatem tuam, et possessionem tuam terminos terrae. [Ps. II 8]

[2] And the Lord was pleased to bruise him in infirmity: if he shall lay down his life for sin, he shall see a long-lived seed, and the will of the Lord shall be prosperous in his hand. Et Dominus voluit conterere eum in infirmitate. Si posuerit pro peccato animam suam, videbit semen longaevum, et voluntas Domini in manu ejus dirigetur. [Ps. LIII 10]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.