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 1
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.”