Psalmorum 129

1 Canticum graduum. Sæpe expugnaverunt me a juventute mea, dicat nunc Israël;

A song of ascents. ‘Sore have they vexed me from youth’ thus let Israel say

2 sæpe expugnaverunt me a juventute mea: etenim non potuerunt mihi.

‘Sore have they vexed me from youth, but they have not prevailed against me.

3 Supra dorsum meum fabricaverunt peccatores; prolongaverunt iniquitatem suam.

‘The ploughers ploughed on my back, they made their furrows long.

4 Dominus justus concidit cervices peccatorum.

But the Lord, who is righteous, has cut the cords of the wicked.’

5 Confundantur, et convertantur retrorsum omnes qui oderunt Sion.

Let all who are haters of Zion be put to shame and defeated.

6 Fiant sicut fœnum tectorum, quod priusquam evellatur exaruit:

May they be as the grass on the house-top, which withers before it shoots up;

7 de quo non implevit manum suam qui metit, et sinum suum qui manipulos colligit.

which fills not the arms of the reaper, nor the lap of the binder of sheaves

8 Et non dixerunt qui præteribant: Benedictio Domini super vos. Benediximus vobis in nomine Domini.

whereof no one says as they pass, ‘The blessing of God be upon you.’ In the name of the Lord we bless you.