Psalmorum 129

1 canticum graduum saepe expugnaverunt me a iuventute mea dicat nunc Israhel

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

2 saepe expugnaverunt me a iuventute mea etenim non potuerunt mihi

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

3 supra dorsum meum fabricabantur peccatores prolongaverunt iniquitatem suam

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

4 Dominus iustus concidet 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 faenum 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 praeteribant 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.