Click
here to show/hide instructions.
Instructions on how to use the page:
The commentary for the selected verse is is displayed below.
All commentary was produced against the King James, so the same verse from that translation may appear as well. Hovering your mouse over a commentary's scripture reference attempts to show those verses.
Use the browser's back button to return to the previous page.
Or you can also select a feature from the Just Verses menu appearing at the top of the page.
Selected Verse: Psalms 129:1 - King James
Verse |
Translation |
Text |
Ps 129:1 |
King James |
A Song of degrees. Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say: |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
The people of God, often delivered from enemies, are confident of His favor, by their overthrow in the future. (Psa 129:1-8)
may Israel now say--or, "oh! let Israel say" (Psa 124:1). Israel's youth was the sojourn in Egypt (Jer 2:2; Hos 2:15). |
Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
Many a time - Margin, as in Hebrew, "much." Probably, however, the idea is, as expressed in our translation, "many a time;" "often." So it is in the Latin Vulgate and the Septuagint; and this accords better with the connection.
Have they afflicted me from my youth - Have I been afflicted; have others dealt unjustly by me. The youth here is the beginning. of the history of that people: since we began to be a people; since the nation was founded.
May Israel now say - May the nation now say. It is clear from this that the psalm was not written at an early period of their history. |
Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
Israel is gratefully to confess that, however much and sorely it was oppressed, it still has not succumbed. רבּת, together with רבּה, has occurred already in Psa 65:10; Psa 62:3, and it becomes usual in the post-exilic language, Psa 120:6; Psa 123:4, Ch2 30:18; Syriac rebath. The expression "from my youth" glances back to the time of the Egyptian bondage; for the time of the sojourn in Egypt was the time of Israel's youth (Hos 2:17, Hos 11:1, Jer 2:2; Eze 23:3). The protasis Psa 129:1 is repeated in an interlinked, chain-like conjunction in order to complete the thought; for Psa 129:2 is the turning-point, where גּם, having reference to the whole negative clause, signifies "also" in the sense of "nevertheless," ὅμως (synon. בּכל־בּכל), as in Eze 16:28; Ecc 6:7, cf. above, Psa 119:24 : although they oppressed me much and sore, yet have they not overpowered me (the construction is like Num 13:30, and frequently). |
Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
From my youth - From the time that I was a people. |
Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
Many a time have they afflicted me - The Israelites had been generally in affliction or captivity from the earliest part of their history, here called their youth. So Hos 2:15 : "She shall sing as in the days of her youth, when she came up out of the land of Egypt." See Jer 2:2, and Eze 16:4, etc. |
15 And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
2 Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.
1 A Song of degrees of David. If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, now may Israel say;
1 A Song of degrees. Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say:
2 Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth: yet they have not prevailed against me.
3 The plowers plowed upon my back: they made long their furrows.
4 The LORD is righteous: he hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked.
5 Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion.
6 Let them be as the grass upon the housetops, which withereth afore it groweth up:
7 Wherewith the mower filleth not his hand; nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom.
8 Neither do they which go by say, The blessing of the LORD be upon you: we bless you in the name of the LORD.
30 And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.
24 Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counsellors.
7 All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.
28 Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians, because thou wast unsatiable; yea, thou hast played the harlot with them, and yet couldest not be satisfied.
2 Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth: yet they have not prevailed against me.
1 A Song of degrees. Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say:
3 And they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity.
2 Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.
1 When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.
17 For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.
18 For a multitude of the people, even many of Ephraim, and Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet did they eat the passover otherwise than it was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, The good LORD pardon every one
4 Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease, and with the contempt of the proud.
6 My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace.
3 How long will ye imagine mischief against a man? ye shall be slain all of you: as a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence.
10 Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly: thou settlest the furrows thereof: thou makest it soft with showers: thou blessest the springing thereof.
4 And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.
2 Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.
15 And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.