A Song of ascents.

1“Sorely have they afflicted me from my youth,”

let Israel now say —

2“Sorely have they afflicted me from my youth,

yet they have not prevailed against me.

3The ploughers ploughed upon my back;

they made long their furrows.”

4The LORD is righteous;

he has cut the cords of the wicked.

5May all who hate Zion

be put to shame and turned backward!

6Let them be like the grass on the housetops,

which withers before it grows up,

7with which the reaper does not fill his hand

or the binder of sheaves his bosom,

8while those who pass by do not say,

“The blessing of the LORD be upon you!

We bless you in the name of the LORD!”