This storyline is also echoed in the references to children as “fruit of the womb,” and wife as “fruitful vine” (Pss 127:3; 128:3). These phrases employ the same Hebrew root used in the primordial mandate of Genesis 1:28, “Be fruitful and multiply!” Furthermore, in another allusion to the Eden narrative, Psalm 127:2 contrasts “eating the bread of the toilers” with the peaceful sleep God gives to those he loves. The “toil” idiom echoes the primordial cursing-of-the-ground in Genesis 3:17 (using the same Hebrew root).
