A new home

Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.

A pilgrim song, often read at housewarmings. Its subject is the futility of anxious effort rather than a promise about property: building, guarding a city, rising early and staying up late all come to nothing on their own. The last line is about sleep being given.

And the officers shall speak unto the people, saying, What man is there that hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it. And what man is he that hath planted a vineyard, and hath not yet eaten of it? let him also go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man eat of it. And what man is there that hath betrothed a wife, and hath not taken her? let him go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her.

Rules read out to an army before battle. A man who has built a house and not yet dedicated it, planted a vineyard and not yet eaten from it, or married and not yet lived with his wife is sent home. The law treats an unfinished beginning as reason enough to release a soldier.

When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house, if any man fall from thence.

A building code. A flat roof was living space, so a new house needed a parapet around it. The reason given is liability: blood on the household if someone falls. Care for a visitor's safety is written into the construction of the house itself.

Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field; and afterwards build thine house.

An observation about order of operations: the field is made to work first, the house is built after. Proverbs describe how life usually runs rather than guarantee anything, but this one names an ordinary sequence, the income before the roof over it.

Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon; Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them; Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.

Part of a letter to Judeans deported to Babylon, telling them to build houses, plant gardens, marry, and pray for the welfare of the city that took them. Other prophets were promising a quick return. This tells them to settle in, which is the opposite of waiting.

Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

The closing image of the Sermon on the Mount. Two houses take the same storm and the difference is the ground, not the building. In the comparison, the rock is acting on what Jesus has just said. Both houses are hit.

Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

Abram is told to leave his country, his relatives and his father's house for a land that is not named. The promise attached is about a nation and a name, given to a man of seventy-five who is being asked to move without knowing the destination.

And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

Spoken at an assembly at Shechem, at the end of a long public argument, where Joshua puts a choice to the tribes and states his own household's. The alternatives he names are real ones: the gods their ancestors served across the river, and the gods of the land they now live in.

By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

A summary of Abraham's life offered as an example of faith. It grants that he never owned the land. He lived there as a foreigner in tents, with his son and grandson, and what he is said to have been looking for was a city with foundations that he did not reach.