Psalms 129

1 [A Song of Ascents.] Many times they have afflicted me from my youth up. Let Israel now say,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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