1 "Often have they attacked me from my youth"-- let Israel now say--2 "often have they attacked me from my youth, yet they have not prevailed against me.3 The plowers plowed on my back; they made their furrows long."4 The LORD is righteous; he has cut the cords of the wicked.5 May all who hate Zion be put to shame and turned backward.6 Let them be like the grass on the housetops that withers before it grows up,7 with which reapers do not fill their hands or binders of sheaves their arms,8 while those who pass by do not say, "The blessing of the LORD be upon you! We bless you in the name of the LORD!"