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 Ascents.] Many times they have afflicted me from my youth up. Let Israel now say,

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

many times they have afflicted me from my youth up, yet they have not prevailed against me.

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

The plowers plowed on my back. They made their furrows long.

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

The LORD is righteous. He has cut apart the cords of the wicked.

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

Let them be disappointed and turned backward, all those who hate Zion.

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

Let them be as the grass on the housetops, which withers before it grows up;

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

with which the reaper doesn't fill his hand, nor he who binds sheaves, his bosom.

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.”

Neither do those who go by say, "The blessing of the LORD be on you. We bless you in the name of the LORD."