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