Text -- Psalms 129:5-8 (NET)

129:5 May all who hate Zion be humiliated and turned back! 129:6 May they be like the grass on the rooftops which withers before one can even pull it up, 129:7 which cannot fill the reaper’s hand, or the lap of the one who gathers the grain! 129:8 Those who pass by will not say, “May you experience the Lord’s blessing! We pronounce a blessing on you in the name of the Lord.”

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Psa 129:6

¹ tn The Hebrew verb שָׁלַף (shalaf) normally means “to draw [a sword]” or “to pull.” BDB 1025 s.v. suggests the meaning “to shoot up” here, but it is more likely that the verb here means “to pluck; to pull up,” a nuance attested for this word in later Hebrew and Aramaic (see Jastrow 1587 s.v. שָׁלַף).

NET Notes: Psa 129:8

¹ tn The perfect verbal form is used for rhetorical effect; it describes an anticipated development as if it were already reality.