Psalm 129

A Pilgrim Song

1-4 "They've kicked me around ever since I was young" —this is how Israel tells it— "They've kicked me around ever since I was young, but they never could keep me down. Their plowmen plowed long furrows up and down my back; Then God ripped the harnesses of the evil plowmen to shreds."
5-8 Oh, let all those who hate Zion grovel in humiliation; Let them be like grass in shallow ground that withers before the harvest, Before the farmhands can gather it in, the harvesters get in the crop, Before the neighbors have a chance to call out, "Congratulations on your wonderful crop! We bless you in God's name!"

Psalm 129

A song of ascents.

1 “Since my youth they have often attacked me,”
let Israel say.

2 “Since my youth they have often attacked me,
but they have not defeated me.

3 The plowers plowed my back;
they made their furrows long.

4 The Lord is just;
he cut the ropes of the wicked.”

5 May all who hate Zion
be humiliated and turned back!

6 May they be like the grass on the rooftops
which withers before one can even pull it up,

7 which cannot fill the reaper’s hand,
or the lap of the one who gathers the grain!

8 Those who pass by will not say,
“May you experience the Lord’s blessing!
We pronounce a blessing on you in the name of the Lord.”