They Have Afflicted Me from My Youth

A Song of mAscents.

¹“Greatly1 have they pafflicted me qfrom my youth”—

rlet Israel now say—

²“Greatly have they pafflicted me qfrom my youth,

syet they have not prevailed against me.

³tThe plowers plowed uupon my back;

they made long their furrows.”

⁴The Lord is righteous;

he has cut vthe cords of the wicked.

⁵May all who hate Zion

be wput to shame and turned backward!

⁶Let them be like xthe grass on the housetops,

which ywithers before it grows up,

⁷with which the reaper does not fill his hand

nor the binder of sheaves his arms,

⁸nor do those who pass by say,

a“The blessing of the Lord be upon you!

We bbless you in the name of the Lord!”