Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 127:5

"Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: They shall not be put to shame, When they speak with their enemies in the gate." — Psalms 127:5 (ASV)

They. —Not the sons. Here there is one of the sudden changes of number in which Hebrew poetry abounds (See especially Psalms 107:43.). Parents who have large families of sons are evidently intended. From the figure of the warrior and the arrows, we should also expect a martial image here. They will not be put to shame, but they will challenge their enemies in the gates. To illustrate, the following may be quoted:

“Therefore men pray to have around their hearth,
Obedient offspring, to requite their foes
With harm, and honour whom their father loves;
But he whose issue is unprofitable,
Begets what else but sorrow to himself,
And store of laughter to his enemies?”

Sophocles, Antigone, 641

On the other hand, it is characteristic of Hebrew poetry to accumulate metaphors. The gate, for example, is frequently mentioned as a place of public assembly, where legal cases were decided (Isaiah 29:21; Amos 5:12, and other similar passages). It is therefore quite as likely that the allusion here is to the support a man’s just cause would receive when clearly supported by a numerous retinue of stalwart sons.

This view certainly receives support from Job 5:4, where we find the very opposite picture: a tyrant’s sons are not only unable to support their father but are themselves crushed in the gate. The phrase speak with their enemies, mentioned in this same verse, may also be illustrated from Joshua 20:4; Jeremiah 12:1.