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A Song of Ascents.

129 Many times they have afflicted me from my youth up.
    Let Israel now say,
many times they have afflicted me from my youth up,
    yet they have not prevailed against me.
The plowers plowed on my back.
    They made their furrows long.
Yahweh is righteous.
    He has cut apart the cords of the wicked.
Let them be disappointed and turned backward,
    all those who hate Zion.
Let them be as the grass on the housetops,
    which withers before it grows up,
with which the reaper doesn’t fill his hand,
    nor he who binds sheaves, his bosom.
Neither do those who go by say,
    “The blessing of Yahweh be on you.
    We bless you in Yahweh’s name.”

Psalm 129

A song for pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem.

From my earliest youth my enemies have persecuted me.
    Let all Israel repeat this:
From my earliest youth my enemies have persecuted me,
    but they have never defeated me.
My back is covered with cuts,
    as if a farmer had plowed long furrows.
But the Lord is good;
    he has cut me free from the ropes of the ungodly.

May all who hate Jerusalem[a]
    be turned back in shameful defeat.
May they be as useless as grass on a rooftop,
    turning yellow when only half grown,
ignored by the harvester,
    despised by the binder.
And may those who pass by
    refuse to give them this blessing:
“The Lord bless you;
    we bless you in the Lord’s name.”

Footnotes

  1. 129:5 Hebrew Zion.