< 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 degrees. Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say:
2 Many enemies have attacked from the time I was young, but they never defeated me.
Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth: 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 upon my back: they made long their furrows.
4 But the Lord does what is right: he has cut me free from the ropes of the wicked.
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.
Let them all be confounded and turned back that 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 [upon] the house-tops, which withereth before it groweth up:
7 There's not enough even for a reaper to hold, not enough even for the binder to bind.
With which the mower filleth not his hand; nor he that bindeth 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 they who go by, say, The blessing of the LORD [be] upon you: we bless you in the name of the LORD.