Translations
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
Those who sow in tears shall reap with ringing song.
Those who sow in tears will reap a harvest with shouts of joy.
Those who sow in tears will reap with shouts of joy.
Footnotes
This verse and the next form a tightly paired wisdom couplet on the paradox of faithful suffering. Bim'ah ("in tears") and berinah ("with ringing song/shouts of joy") create a contrast that is almost musical in Hebrew—grief and joy as twin poles of covenant life. Sowing is itself an act of faith: releasing seed into uncertain, seemingly dead ground. This resonates powerfully forward to Jesus's teaching on the grain of wheat that must die to bear fruit (John 12:24) and to Paul's theology of sowing and reaping (Gal. 6:7–9). F.O.G. and F.O.G.M. render rinah consistently with their respective choices in v. 2.

