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Psalm 129 · a question people ask

Who afflicted Israel "from my youth up" (129:1)? Does the psalm say?

In the text

No. The psalm says only they: "Many times they have afflicted me from my youth up" (129:1), "yet they have not prevailed against me" (129:2). Its title, "A Song of Ascents" (129:1), names no one and no time. The plowers of 129:3 and "the wicked" of 129:4 aren't named either, and "all those who hate Zion" (129:5) says what they do, not who they are. The psalm doesn't say what my youth was, or why Israel is given words that speak as one person. These notes don't name the enemies, an event or a time, and don't apply the psalm's enemies to any people today.

The verses

“A Song of Ascents. Many times they have afflicted me from my youth up. Let Israel now say: many times they have afflicted me from my youth up, yet they have not prevailed against me. The plowers plowed on my back. They made their furrows long. The LORD is righteous. He has cut apart the cords of the wicked. Let them be disappointed and turned backward, all those who hate Zion.”
Psalm 129:1-5 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Psalm 129

Psalm 129: Yet they have not prevailed

Psalm 129 says one line twice, and only the second time does it end: "yet they have not prevailed against me" (129:2). Between the plowers and the withered grass stands "The LORD is righteous" (129:4). And its grass on the housetops is two Hebrew words found together in only two other verses, both about people with "little power" (2 Kings 19:26).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions