¹From my earliest youth my enemies have persecuted me.

Let all Israel repeat this:

²From my earliest youth my enemies have persecuted me,

but they have never defeated me.

³My back is covered with cuts,

as if a farmer had plowed long furrows.

⁴But the Lord is good;

he has cut me free from the ropes of the ungodly.

⁵May all who hate Jerusalem[#129:5 Hebrew Zion.]

be turned back in shameful defeat.

⁶May they be as useless as grass on a rooftop,

turning yellow when only half grown,

⁷ignored by the harvester,

despised by the binder.

⁸And may those who pass by

refuse to give them this blessing:

“The Lord bless you;

we bless you in the Lord ’s name.”