Psalms 129

1 A song for pilgrims going up to Jerusalem. Many enemies have attacked from the time I was young. Let everyone in Israel say:

“A song of the degrees.” Many a time have they assailed me from my youth, so should Israel say;

2 Many enemies have attacked from the time I was young, but they never defeated me.

Many a time have they assailed me from my youth: yet have they not prevailed against me.

3 They beat me on my back, leaving long furrows as if it had been ploughed by a farmer.

Upon my back have ploughmen ploughed; they have drawn long their furrows:

4 But the Lord does what is right: he has cut me free from the ropes of the wicked.

[Yet] the Lord is righteous; he hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked.

5 May everyone who hates Zion be driven back in humiliating defeat.

May all be put to shame and turned backward that hate Zion;

6 May they be like grass that grows on a roof that withers before it can be harvested,

May they become like the grass of the roofs, which withereth before it is pulled up;

7 There's not enough even for a reaper to hold, not enough even for the binder to bind.

Wherewith the mower filleth not his hand; nor his arm he that bindeth sheaves.

8 May passers-by not say to them, “The blessing of the Lord be on you; we bless you in the name of the Lord.”

Nor do they who pass by say, The blessing of the Lord be with you: we bless you in the name of the Lord.