Psalmorum 129

1 Canticum graduum. [Sæpe expugnaverunt me a juventute mea, dicat nunc Israël;

A song of ascents. ‘Sore have they vexed me from youth’ thus let Israel say

2 sæpe expugnaverunt me a juventute mea: etenim non potuerunt mihi.

‘Sore have they vexed me from youth, but they have not prevailed against me.

3 Supra dorsum meum fabricaverunt peccatores; prolongaverunt iniquitatem suam.

‘The ploughers ploughed on my back, they made their furrows long.

4 Dominus justus concidit cervices peccatorum.

But the Lord, who is righteous, has cut the cords of the wicked.’

5 Confundantur, et convertantur retrorsum omnes qui oderunt Sion.

Let all who are haters of Zion be put to shame and defeated.

6 Fiant sicut fœnum tectorum, quod priusquam evellatur exaruit:

May they be as the grass on the house-top, which withers before it shoots up;

7 de quo non implevit manum suam qui metit, et sinum suum qui manipulos colligit.

which fills not the arms of the reaper, nor the lap of the binder of sheaves

8 Et non dixerunt qui præteribant: Benedictio Domini super vos. Benediximus vobis in nomine Domini.]

whereof no one says as they pass, ‘The blessing of God be upon you.’ In the name of the Lord we bless you.