1A Song of Ascents. Many times they have afflicted me from my youth up. Let Israel now say: 2many times they have afflicted me from my youth up, yet they have not prevailed against me. 3The plowers plowed on my back. They made their furrows long. 4The LORD is righteous. He has cut apart the cords of the wicked. 5Let them be disappointed and turned backward, all those who hate Zion. 6Let them be as the grass on the housetops, which withers before it grows up, 7with which the reaper doesn’t fill his hand, nor he who binds sheaves, his bosom. 8Neither do those who go by say, “The blessing of the LORD be on you. We bless you in the LORD’s name.”