Psalms Chapter 144 verse 12 Holy Bible
When our sons shall be as plants grown up in their youth, And our daughters as corner-stones hewn after the fashion of a palace;
read chapter 144 in ASV
Our sons are like tall young plants; and our daughters like the shining stones of a king's house;
read chapter 144 in BBE
That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; our daughters as corner-columns, sculptured after the fashion of a palace:
read chapter 144 in DARBY
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:
read chapter 144 in KJV
read chapter 144 in WBT
Then our sons will be like well-nurtured plants, Our daughters like pillars carved to adorn a palace.
read chapter 144 in WEB
Because our sons `are' as plants, Becoming great in their youth, Our daughters as hewn stones, Polished -- the likeness of a palace,
read chapter 144 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 12. - That our sons may be as plants. The stanza which these words introduce is a very remarkable one, having nothing at all corresponding to it in the rest of the Psalter. It has been thought by some to be an antique document, quoted by the writer of the psalm, as suited for a festal occasion. Our translation makes it a picture of the condition to which the writer hopes that Israel may one day come; but the best recent critics see in it a description of Israel's actual condition in the writer's day. Professor Cheyne translates, "Because our sons are as plants;" and Dr. Kay, "What time our sons are as plants." Grown up in their youth; literally, grown large. The sons are compared to ornamental trees or shrubs, growing outside a building. That our daughters may be as cornerstones, polished (or, "carved") after the similitude of a palace. The daughters are like carved pillars, lighting up the angular recesses of the structure.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(12) That our sons.--This rendering of the relative, which so strangely begins this fragment, would be possible after Genesis 11:7; Genesis 13:16, &c, if a finite verb instead of participles followed; or it might mean "because," as in Genesis 30:18, &c, but for the same anomalous construction; or it might, as by the LXX., be rendered whose, if any antecedent for it could be discovered. But all these devices are plainly impossible, and there is nothing for it but to treat the passage which it introduces as a fragment of another poem quite unconnected with the previous part of the psalm. Render, we whose.As plants.--The Hebrew word seems always to denote a young, vigorous tree lately planted. (See especially Job 14:9, aptly translated by the LXX. ????????. (For the comparison, comp. Isaiah 5:7; Psalm 1:3, Note, Psalm 128:3.) . . .
