The Message Bible MSG
New Living Translation NLT
1 "They've kicked me around ever since I was young" - this is how Israel tells it -
1
From my earliest youth my enemies have persecuted me. Let all Israel repeat this:
2 "They've kicked me around ever since I was young, but they never could keep me down.
2
From my earliest youth my enemies have persecuted me, but they have never defeated me.
3 Their plowmen plowed long furrows up and down my back;
3
My back is covered with cuts, as if a farmer had plowed long furrows.
4 Then God ripped the harnesses of the evil plowmen to shreds."
4
But the LORD is good; he has cut me free from the ropes of the ungodly.
5 Oh, let all those who hate Zion grovel in humiliation;
5
May all who hate Jerusalem be turned back in shameful defeat.
6 Let them be like grass in shallow ground that withers before the harvest,
6
May they be as useless as grass on a rooftop, turning yellow when only half grown,
7 Before the farmhands can gather it in, the harvesters get in the crop,
7
ignored by the harvester, despised by the binder.
8 Before the neighbors have a chance to call out, "Congratulations on your wonderful crop! We bless you in God's name!"
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.”
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by
Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.