Psalms 128:2

"You shall eat the labours of your fruits" [Psalm 128:2]. And ye, O thou, you many who are One, "You shall eat of the labours of your fruits." He seems to speak perversely to those who understand not: for he should have said, you shall eat the fruit of your labours. For many eat the fruit of their labours. They labour in the vineyard; they eat not the toil itself; but what arises from their labour they eat. They labour about trees that bear fruit: who would eat labours? But the fruit of these labours, the produce of these trees; it is this that delights the husbandman. What means, "You shall eat the labours of your fruits"? At present we have toils: the fruits will come afterwards. But since their labours themselves are not without joy, on account of the hope whereof we have a little before spoken, "Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation;" [Romans 12:12] at present those very labours delight us, and make us joyful in hope. If therefore our toil has been what could be eaten, and could also delight us; what will be the fruit of our labour when eaten? "They who went weeping on their way, scattering their seed," did eat their labours; with how much greater pleasure will they eat the fruits of their labours, who "shall come again with joy, bearing their sheaves with them"?..."Blessed are you, and well shall it be with you." "Blessed are you," is of the present: "well shall it be with you," is of the future. When you eat the labours of your fruits, "blessed are you;" when you have reached the fruit of your labours, "well shall it be with you." What has he said? For if it be well with you, you will be happy: and if you will be happy, you will also have all well with you. But there is a difference between hope and attainment. If hope be so sweet, how much sweeter will reality be?

You will eat the labors of your hands. Many, not understanding, have interpreted this passage otherwise: 'You will eat the labors of your fruits.' Indeed the Latin copies have it thus: You will eat the labors of your fruits. But we read it written thus in the Hebrew: You will eat the labors of your hands. For who eats the labors of fruits? Surely it ought to be understood the other way around, that someone eats the fruit of his labors, and not the labors of his hands. For it is understood the other way around. For it can rather be said that someone eats the fruit of his labors, and not the labors of fruits. Since, therefore, it is written thus in the Hebrew, You will eat the labors of your hands, I think that in Greek too the Seventy translators translated this passage well. For in the Hebrew tongue the hand is called IAD; but in this passage it does not have IAD, but CAPH. And CAPH is translated καρπός (karpos)—not καρπός in the sense of fruit, but some part of the hand: seeing that καρπός in Greek means the joints (ἄρθρα, arthra). This we have said concerning the translation. You will eat, therefore, the labors of your hands. 'Whatever a man sows, this also will he reap.' Behold the man, and his works. So then we too will eat the labors of our hands. In the hands, works are understood. You will eat the labors of your hands. Someone may say: So then, are we going to eat after the resurrection? For this is said of the blessed man, You will eat the labors of your hands. I say this plainly, that man is composed of two substances, that is, of soul and body. The soul is immortal, but the body is mortal. What is mortal must of necessity have mortal food also; but what is immortal, that is, the soul, which is immortal, must have immortal food also. Do you want to know that the soul too has its own food? The Lord and Savior says it, when he was hungry. What does he say? 'My food is to do the will of him who sent me.' Do you want to know what food the soul has? The prophet too says to us: 'Taste and see that the Lord is sweet.' For just as the body, unless it receives its food, dies: so also the soul, unless it receives spiritual food, dies. Why do I say all this? Because some are accustomed to say: I do not need the holy scripture, it is enough for me only to fear God. And we have said this for this reason: as there are foods for the body, so the holy scriptures…