Psalm 129
The full text of Psalm 129 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
A Song of Ascents.
1 "Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth" —
let Israel now say —
2 "Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth,
yet they have not prevailed against me.
3 The plowers plowed upon my back;
they made long their furrows."
4 The LORD is righteous;
he has cut the cords of the wicked.
5 May all who hate Zion
be put to shame and turned backward!
6 Let them be like the grass on the housetops,
which withers before it grows up,
7 with which the reaper does not fill his hand
nor the binder of sheaves his arms,
8 nor do those who pass by say,
"The blessing of the LORD be upon you!
We bless you in the name of the LORD!"
Translation notes (2)
- Psalm 129:3a The image likens the sufferer's back to a field scored by the plow: the long furrows suggest the welts left by scourging, a picture of Israel's prolonged oppression. Hebrew ma'anah (מַעֲנָה), 'furrow', denotes the length of ground a plow cuts in one pass, intensifying the sense of drawn-out affliction.
- Psalm 129:6a Roofs in ancient Israel were flat, made of packed earth and clay over beams, so seeds sprouting there after rain found no depth of soil and quickly scorched. The Hebrew verb shalaph, 'to draw out', elsewhere used of unsheathing a sword, is here understood of the grass shooting up, though some take it to mean the grass withers before anyone can pull it up.
About this translation
You are reading the Trinity Bible Version (TBV) — an original 2026 translation made straight from the Hebrew, in clear modern English, exclusive to Trinity Bible. Every chapter of every book is free to read online. For the study edition — with Hebrew and Greek on every verse and the full translation notes — open Psalms in the Trinity Bible app.
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