# Chapter 129
1 From my earliest youth my enemies have persecuted me.
    Let all Israel repeat this:
2 From my earliest youth my enemies have persecuted me,
    but they have never defeated me.
3 My back is covered with cuts,
    as if a farmer had plowed long furrows.
4 But the Lord is good;
    he has cut me free from the ropes of the ungodly.
5 May all who hate Jerusalem
    be turned back in shameful defeat.
6 May they be as useless as grass on a rooftop,
    turning yellow when only half grown,
7 ignored by the harvester,
    despised by the binder.
8 And may those who pass by
    refuse to give them this blessing:
“The Lord bless you;
    we bless you in the Lord’s name.”