Psalms 129:5-8

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.”

[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).

[129:8]  ² tn The perfect verbal form is used for rhetorical effect; it describes an anticipated development as if it were already reality.