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, 1
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, 2
“May you experience the Lord’s blessing!
We pronounce a blessing on you in the name of the Lord.”
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).
2 tn The perfect verbal form is used for rhetorical effect; it describes an anticipated development as if it were already reality.