1 A song of the ascents. Much have they afflicted me from my youth, let now Israel say;
2 Much have they afflicted me from my youth; yet have they not prevailed against me.
3 Upon my back ploughers ploughed; they made long (to) their furrows.
4 Jehovah [is] righteous; he hath cut asunder wicked [men’s] cord.
5 Ashamed and turned backward be all that hate Zion.
6 Be they as grass of housetops which withereth before it is plucked up;
7 Wherewith a mower filleth not his hand nor (and) a sheafbinder his bosom.
8 Neither do those that pass by say, Jehovah’s blessing [come] unto you: we bless you in Jehovah’s name.
Notes on Psalm 129
“A song of the ascents.” It is a psalm of painful and touching interest as to Israel’s enemies, whose will was in their sufferings, however deserved. They hated Zion which Jehovah chose and loved; and their desolations were as cruel as fruitless, being in vain to destroy, as the end will show in that day.