¹Many 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.”