They Have Afflicted Me from My Youth

A Song of Ascents.

¹“Greatly1 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.

³The plowers plowed 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

nor the binder of sheaves his arms,

⁸nor do those who pass by say,

“The blessing of the Lord be upon you!

We bless you in the name of the Lord!”

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