Psalms 129–8
Psalm 129:1-8
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Psa.129.1 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- שיר: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- המעלות: NOUN,f,pl,def
- רבת: ADV
- צררוני: VERB,qal,perf,3,m,pl,obj,1,sg
- מנעורי: PREP+NOUN,m,pl,abs+PRON,1,sg
- יאמר: VERB,qal,imperfect,3,m,sg
- נא: PART
- ישראל: NOUN,m,sg,abs
Parallels
- Psalm 129:2 (structural): Immediate continuation of the same psalm: repeats the motif of repeated affliction from youth and adds the contrast that the oppressors did not prevail (completes the thought begun in v.1).
- Psalm 71:5 (verbal): Uses the phrase 'from my youth' (trust/experience extending back to youth); both verses frame life‑long experience (suffering or trust) in relation to one's early years.
- Psalm 22:10 (thematic): Speaks of a lifelong relationship and suffering ('from my mother's womb'); thematically parallels the idea of endurance under affliction beginning in early life.
- Lamentations 3:19–21 (thematic): Recalls long‑continued affliction and the act of remembering that affliction in order to testify to God's faithfulness—similar motif of recalling persistent suffering and invoking a communal or declarative response.
Alternative generated candidates
- A song of ascents. Many have oppressed me from my youth; let Israel now say.
- A song of ascents. Many a time they have afflicted me from my youth—let Israel now say.
Psa.129.2 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- רבת: ADV
- צררוני: VERB,qal,perf,3,m,pl
- מנעורי: PREP+NOUN,m,pl,abs+PRON,1,sg
- גם: ADV
- לא: PART_NEG
- יכלו: VERB,qal,impf,3,m,pl
- לי: PREP+PRON,1,sg
Parallels
- Psalm 129:1 (structural): Immediate context — the psalm opens by recounting repeated afflictions from youth, of which v.2 is the conclusion (they have afflicted me from my youth).
- Psalm 129:4 (structural): Within the same psalm the reason they could not prevail is given: the LORD is righteous and has broken the cords of the wicked (resolution to the affliction theme).
- Psalm 34:19 (thematic): Shares the theme that the righteous suffer many afflictions but the LORD delivers them (many afflictions from youth but not ultimately overcome).
- Isaiah 54:17 (verbal): Expresses the related conviction that hostile attacks will not succeed (‘no weapon formed against you shall prosper’), paralleling ‘they could not prevail against me.’
- Psalm 118:13 (thematic): Speaks of being pushed to fall by enemies but being helped/spared by the LORD — similar motif of hostile attempts that do not succeed.
Alternative generated candidates
- Many have oppressed me from my youth; yet they could not prevail against me.
- Many a time they have afflicted me from my youth; yet they have not prevailed over me.
Psa.129.3 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- על: PREP
- גבי: NOUN,m,sg,abs+1s
- חרשו: VERB,qal,perf,3,m,pl
- חרשים: NOUN,m,pl,abs
- האריכו: VERB,hiphil,perf,3,m,pl
- למעניתם: PREP+NOUN,f,sg,abs+3,m,pl
Parallels
- Isaiah 50:6 (verbal): First‑person suffering language with the back as the site of abuse—"I gave my back to the smiters" echoes the image of ploughmen making furrows on the psalmist's back (strong verbal/thematic parallel).
- Deuteronomy 25:3 (thematic): Prescribes corporal punishment by stripes on the back; provides legal/background imagery for the metaphor of 'furrows' cut into a person's back by enemies or scourging.
- John 19:1 (thematic): Pilate has Jesus scourged—New Testament instance of severe beating/scourging of the back, thematically resonant with the psalm's image of ploughing and long furrows as inflicted suffering.
- Psalm 129:2 (structural): Immediate context within the same Song of Ascents: verse 2 speaks of repeated affliction from youth, which the ploughing image in v.3 concretely depicts—an internal, structural parallel.
Alternative generated candidates
- Plowmen plowed upon my back; they lengthened their furrows.
- They plowed long furrows on my back; they made their furrows long.
Psa.129.4 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- יהוה: NOUN,prop,m,sg,abs
- צדיק: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- קצץ: VERB,qal,perf,3,m,sg
- עבות: NOUN,f,pl,abs
- רשעים: NOUN,m,pl,abs
Parallels
- Psalm 37:17 (verbal): Speaks of the power of the wicked being broken ('the arms of the wicked shall be broken'), paralleling Ps 129:4's image of God cutting the cords/power of the wicked.
- Psalm 37:9 (verbal): Declares that 'evildoers shall be cut off,' using the same verbal motif of cutting away the wicked that appears in Ps 129:4.
- Proverbs 2:22 (verbal): Says 'the wicked shall be cut off from the land,' echoing the language and consequence of the wicked being severed in Ps 129:4.
- Psalm 145:20 (thematic): Affirms the theme that the LORD preserves the righteous but will destroy all the wicked, resonating with Ps 129:4's emphasis on God's righteous action against evildoers.
- Nahum 1:3 (allusion): Portrays the LORD as just and powerful who will not let the guilty go unpunished—a theological parallel to Ps 129:4's declaration that the righteous LORD cuts off the wicked.
Alternative generated candidates
- The LORD is righteous; he has cut the cords of the wicked.
- The LORD is righteous; he has cut the cords of the wicked.
Psa.129.5 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- יבשו: VERB,qal,imprf,3,m,pl
- ויסגו: VERB,qal,impf,3,m,pl
- אחור: ADV
- כל: DET
- שנאי: NOUN,m,pl,poss1
- ציון: NOUN,prop,f,sg,abs
Parallels
- Ps.129:1-4 (structural): Immediate context: the song contrasts repeated affliction of Zion with the eventual humiliation of her foes; v.5 continues the same sentiment of enemies being put to shame and driven back.
- Ps.35:4 (verbal): Uses similar language praying that those who seek the psalmist’s harm be ashamed and turned back—verbal/thematic overlap in petitions for the confounding of adversaries.
- Isaiah 60:14 (thematic): Promises that those who afflicted Zion will bow and be put to shame while the city is honored—a prophetic parallel about the reversal of the fortunes of Zion’s enemies.
- Zephaniah 3:11 (thematic): Speaks of a future day when Jerusalem will no longer be put to shame and her foes will be dealt with—echoes the theme of shame and reversal for Zion’s haters.
Alternative generated candidates
- May all who hate Zion be put to shame and turn back.
- Let them be ashamed and turn back— all who hate Zion.
Psa.129.6 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- יהיו: VERB,qal,impf,3,m,pl
- כחציר: PREP+NOUN,m,sg,abs
- גגות: NOUN,m,pl,abs
- שקדמת: CONJ+NOUN,f,sg,abs
- שלף: VERB,qal,impv,2,m,sg
- יבש: ADJ,m,sg,abs
Parallels
- Psalm 90:5-6 (verbal): Uses the same grass-withering imagery to depict human frailty: 'they are like a dream... like grass that is renewed in the morning... in the evening it fades and withers.' Close verbal and thematic parallel.
- Psalm 102:11 (verbal): The psalmist says 'my days are like a shadow... I wither like grass,' echoing the image of withering vegetation to express destruction and transience.
- Isaiah 40:6-8 (thematic): Declares 'all flesh is grass... the grass withers, the flower fades,' using the same motif of ephemeral grass to contrast human transience with God's enduring word.
- Psalm 37:2 (verbal): Speaks of the wicked who 'will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb,' employing identical language of swift decay to describe the fate of enemies.
- Job 14:2 (thematic): 'They spring up like flowers and wither' — Job uses the same botanical metaphor of short-lived growth and early withering to portray human life's brevity, similar to the rooftop-grass image.
Alternative generated candidates
- They shall be like the grass on the housetops—withered before it grows.
- May they be like the grass on the housetops, which withers before it grows up.
Psa.129.7 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- שלא: CONJ
- מלא: ADJ,m,sg
- כפו: NOUN,f,sg,abs
- קוצר: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- וחצנו: CONJ+VERB,qal,perf,3,m,sg
- מעמר: PREP+NOUN,m,sg,abs
Parallels
- Deuteronomy 28:38 (verbal): Part of the Deuteronomic curse series: “you shall carry much seed into the field and shall gather but little” — an agricultural curse of sowing without fruitful harvest, closely echoing Ps 129:7’s wish that the enemy’s harvest not fill his hands.
- Jeremiah 12:13 (thematic): “They sow wheat but reap thorns” — a prophetic lament/curse using the image of failed or perverse harvest as divine judgment, thematically parallel to Ps 129:7’s desire that crops and gleanings bring nothing.
- Hosea 8:7 (allusion): “They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind” — uses sowing/reaping imagery to describe disastrous consequences; while more proverbial, it echoes the idea that expected agricultural gain is reversed as judgment (similar motif to Ps 129:7).
- Psalm 109:10 (structural): An imprecatory curse aimed at enemies’ economic and familial ruin (“May his children be continually vagabonds and beg”), comparable in form and intent to Ps 129:7’s wish for the enemy’s harvest and store to fail.
Alternative generated candidates
- The reaper will not fill his hand, nor the binder his arms with sheaves.
- It does not fill the hand of the reaper, nor the arm of him who binds sheaves.
Psa.129.8 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- ולא: CONJ
- אמרו: VERB,qal,perf,3,m,pl
- העברים: NOUN,m,pl,def
- ברכת: NOUN,f,sg,const
- יהוה: NOUN,prop,m,sg,abs
- אליכם: PREP+PRON,2,pl
- ברכנו: VERB,qal,perf,3,m,pl
- אתכם: PRT+PRON,2,m,pl
- בשם: PREP+NOUN,m,sg,abs
- יהוה: NOUN,prop,m,sg,abs
Parallels
- Numbers 6:24-26 (quotation): The classic priestly benediction ("The LORD bless you and keep you...") provides the same verbal framework of invoking YHWH's blessing — the verse in Psalms records that such a blessing was not offered.
- Psalm 134:3 (verbal): Uses the identical formula "יברכך יהוה" (May the LORD bless you); Psalm 134 is a direct liturgical call to bless YHWH or to invoke blessing on others, contrasting with the refusal described in Ps 129:8.
- Genesis 12:3 (thematic): God's promise that those who bless Abraham (and his seed) will be blessed — thematically related to the expectation that Israelites should invoke YHWH's blessing on one another, which Ps 129:8 reports was not done.
- Deuteronomy 28:8 (verbal): Part of the covenant blessing formulas repeatedly using "יברכך ה'" (The LORD will bless you); highlights the covenantal context in which blessing invocations are normatively expected, underscoring Ps 129:8's note that enemies did not speak such a blessing.
Alternative generated candidates
- May those who pass by not say, “May the LORD bless you”; they shall not bless you in the name of the LORD.
- May those who pass by not say, "The LORD bless you; we bless you in the name of the LORD."
A song of ascents. Many a time they have afflicted me from my youth—let Israel now say,
Many a time they have afflicted me from my youth; yet they could not prevail against me.
Plowmen plowed upon my back; they made their furrows long.
The LORD is righteous; he has cut the cords of the wicked.
May all who hate Zion be ashamed and turn back.
May they be like the grass on the housetops, which withers before it grows. So that the reaper's hand is not filled, nor the binder of sheaves his arms.
Nor do those who pass by say, 'May the LORD bless you; we bless you in the name of the LORD.'