Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 126

When the Lord ... —Literally, In turning by Jehovah the turning of Zion. The phrase is not precisely the same as that in Psalms 126:4, which is usual and offers no difficulty. Here the form of the noun “turning” presents some difficulty; but, after the analogy of a few other words, it can bear the concrete meaning “returned:” when Jehovah brought back the returned of Zion.

Like them that dream. —The Septuagint and Vulgate have “as if consoled.” The Hebrew word primarily means “to be fat,” or “fleshy,” and in Isaiah 38:16 is rendered “recover”—a meaning that would make good sense here, and which is adopted by the Chaldean paraphrases: “We were like such men who have recovered.” On the other hand, the usual rendering suggests that the news of the restoration appeared too good to be true. “Surely you are dreaming” is a common saying.

An apt illustration is provided by Livy’s description of the feelings of the Greeks. At the Isthmian games (B.C. 196), after the defeat of the Macedonians by T. Flaminius, they heard the herald's proclamation that, by the free gift of the Roman people, they would retain their liberty. “The joy was too great for men to take it all in. None could quite believe that he had heard correctly, and they looked on one another in wonder, like the empty show of a dream” (Livy, xxxiii. 32).

Singing. — As is frequent concerning the restoration in Isaiah: Isaiah 42:11; Isaiah 44:23; Isaiah 54:1; and others.

Has done. — See the margin, and compare to Joel 2:21.

Captivity. — Here there is a change. The joy of the great Return was too great not to endure through many difficulties. But the poet now thinks of the many exiles still dispersed among the nations, and prays for another manifestation of Divine favor and power.

The streams in the south. — Rather, the channels in the south. The allusion is to the sudden filling of the dry torrent beds of the southern district of Palestine in the rainy season. So the poet prays that torrents of the returned may pour into the desolate and deserted country. (Compare to Isaiah 49:18 for the same feeling, but under a different figure.) The Septuagint has “in the south wind,” evidently thinking of the melting of a frozen stream, instead of the filling of a dry riverbed.

Joy. — Rather, singing, as in Psalms 126:2. The harvest-home songs are contrasted with the anxiety of the seed-time. Probably the poet found the proverbial saying already current, but he has touched it with the consecrating hand until it has become only less precious than the saying of Divine lips, “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

The original is very expressive, by the idiom of an infinitive combined with a finite verb:
“He shall walk, and walk and weep,
Bearing the handful of seed:
He shall come, and come with singing,
Bearing his sheaves.”

Here, we must certainly see an extension and not a mere repetition of the previous figure, for the very form of the expression suggests the long, patient labour of the sower, and the reward which patience and perseverance always bring—a harvest in proportion to the toil and trouble of seed-time. The words of the prophet Haggai (Haggai 1:10–11; Haggai 2:19), contemporary with the Return, should be compared.

The word translated “precious” in the Authorized Version may be correctly represented by “handful.” Its meaning is “drawing”; and from Amos 9:13 (see the marginal note), we see that the sower was called “the drawer of seed,” no doubt because the hand is repeatedly drawn out for the cast from the bag or basket containing the seed. Others translate it as “seed-basket” here. The contrast so beautifully painted in this verse was certainly realised when the priests and Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity, kept the dedication of the house of God with joy (Ezra 6:16; Nehemiah 12:42).