Psalms · 8 verses
Psalms 129
Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.
The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
The enemies are wished into rooftop grass so feeble that no reaper gets a handful, and then denied even the courtesy of a blessing.
A back made into a fieldvv. 1–4
Israel is summoned to declare that persecution began in youth and, though repeated, did not prevail. The image then turns gloriously agricultural and grim: plowmen have used a back as earth, drawing long furrows, until the LORD cuts the sufferer free from the cords of the wicked.
A harvest that never arrivesvv. 5–8
The enemies of Zion are wished backward in shame and compared with grass on rooftops: alive only briefly, withering before it can grow enough to fill either a reaper’s hands or a binder’s arms. The final deprivation is wonderfully particular: no passerby is to offer them the customary blessing, not even in the name of the LORD.
The text
Read it
Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
Ps 129:1A song of ascents. Many a time they have persecuted me from my youth—let Israel now declare—
Ps 129:2many a time they have persecuted me from my youth, but they have not prevailed against me.
Ps 129:3The plowmen plowed over my back; they made their furrows long.
Ps 129:4The LORD is righteous; He has cut me from the cords of the wicked.
Ps 129:6May they be like grass on the rooftops, which withers before it can grow,
Ps 129:7unable to fill the hands of the reaper, or the arms of the binder of sheaves.
Ps 129:8May none who pass by say to them, “The blessing of the LORD be on you; we bless you in the name of the LORD.”
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 71 passages were voted onto 8 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 1Psalms 124:1A song of ascents. Of David. If the LORD had not been on our side—let Israel now declare—
- 2Revelation 12:8–9But the dragon was not strong enough, and no longer was any place found in heaven for him and his angels.
- 22 Corinthians 4:8–9We are hard pressed on all sides, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;
- 2Matthew 16:18And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.
- 2Psalms 34:19Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him from them all.
- 3Isaiah 51:23I will place it in the hands of your tormentors, who told you: ‘Lie down, so we can walk over you,’ so that you made your back like the ground, like a street to be traversed.”
- 4Psalms 119:137Righteous are You, O LORD, and upright are Your judgments.
- 1Hosea 11:1When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son.
- 1Jeremiah 2:2“Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem that this is what the LORD says: ‘I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.
- 2Psalms 118:13I was pushed so hard I was falling, but the LORD helped me.
- 2John 16:33I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take courage; I have overcome the world!”
- 2Psalms 42:1For the choirmaster. A Maskil of the sons of Korah. As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul longs after You, O God.
- 2Psalms 125:1A song of ascents. Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion. It cannot be moved; it abides forever.
- 4Lamentations 3:22Because of the loving devotion of the LORD we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail.
- 8Ruth 2:4Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and said to the harvesters, “The LORD be with you.” “The LORD bless you,” they replied.
- 1Exodus 1:12–14But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and flourished; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites.
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