Psalms 127:2

This is the least sentimental verse in the Bible about overwork, and it does not argue on the grounds you expect.

It does not say the early rising is unhealthy, though it is. It does not say your family is suffering, though they may be. It says it is vain — pointless, empty, achieving nothing that would not otherwise have been achieved. The charge is not that overwork is unkind. The charge is that it does not work.

That is a harder claim, and most of us do not believe it. We believe the extra hours are producing something. The psalm's argument, running from verse one, is that whatever gets built without God building it does not stand, and the additional hours cannot change that arithmetic. You are not adding to the outcome. You are adding to yourself.

The phrase bread of toil catches the flavour exactly. Not bread earned by toil — bread made of it. Food that tastes of the anxiety that bought it, eaten fast, standing up, while checking something.

And then the alternative, put almost casually: he gives sleep to his loved ones. Sleep as a gift, delivered to people characterised not by their productivity but by being loved. It is the one thing on the list that cannot be striven for. You can force yourself awake. Nobody has ever forced themselves asleep.