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Selected Verse: Psalms 129:3 - Strong Concordance
Verse |
Translation |
Text |
Ps 129:3 |
Strong Concordance |
The plowers [02790] plowed [02790] upon my back [01354]: they made long [0748] their furrows [04618] [04618]. |
|
King James |
The plowers plowed upon my back: they made long their furrows. |
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 ploughing is a figure of scourging, which most severe physical infliction aptly represents all kinds. |
Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
The plowers plowed upon my back - The comparison here is undoubtedly taken from the "plowing" of land, and the idea is that the sufferings which they had endured were such as would be well represented by a plow passing over a field, tearing up the sod; piercing deep; and producing long rows or furrows. The direct allusion would seem to be to stripes inflicted on the back, as if a plow had been made to pass over it; and the meaning is, that they had been subjected to sufferings as slaves or criminals were when the lash cut deep into the flesh. Probably the immediate thing in the mind of the psalmist was the hard bondage of the children of Israel in Egypt, when they were subjected to all the evils of servitude.
They made long their furrows - On my back. The word used here, and rendered "made long" - ארך 'ârak, means to make long, to prolong, to extend in a right line, and it may be used either in the sense of making long as to extent or space, or making long in regard to time, prolonging. The latter would seem to be the meaning here, as it is difficult to see in what sense it could be said that stripes inflicted on the back could be made long. They might, however, be continued and repeated; the sufferings might be prolonged sufferings as well as deep. It was a work of long-continued oppression and wrong. |
Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
Elsewhere it is said that the enemies have driven over Israel (Psa 66:12), or have gone over its back (Isa 51:23); here the customary figurative language חרשׁ און in Job 4:8 (cf. Hos 10:13) is extended to another figure of hostile dealing: without compassion and without consideration they ill-treated the stretched-forth back of the people who were held in subjection, as though it were arable land, and, without restraining their ferocity and setting a limit to their spoiling of the enslaved people and country, they drew their furrow-strip (מעניתם, according to the Ker מענותם) long. But מענה does not signify (as Keil on Sa1 14:14 is of opinion, although explaining the passage more correctly than Thenius) the furrow (= תּלם, גּדוּד), but, like Arab. ma‛nât, a strip of arable land which the ploughman takes in hand at one time, at both ends of which consequently the ploughing team (צמד) always comes to a stand, turns round, and ploughs a new furrow; from ענה, to bend, turn (vid., Wetzstein's Excursus II p. 861). It is therefore: they drew their furrow-turning long (dative of the object instead of the accusative with Hiph., as e.g., in Isa 29:2, cf. with Piel in Psa 34:4; Psa 116:16, and Kal Psa 69:6, after the Aramaic style, although it is not unhebraic). Righteous is Jahve - this is an universal truth, which has been verified in the present circumstances; - He hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked (עבות as in Psa 2:3; here, however, it is suggested by the metaphor in Psa 129:3, cf. Job 39:10; lxx αὐχένας, i.e., ענוק), with which they held Israel bound. From that which has just been experienced Israel derives the hope that all Zion's haters (a newly coined name for the enemies of the religion of Israel) will be obliged to retreat with shame and confusion. |
Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
The plowers plowed upon my back - It is possible that this mode of expression may signify that the people, during their captivity, were cruelly used by scourging, etc.; or it may be a sort of proverbial mode of expression for the most cruel usage. There really appears here to be a reference to a yoke, as if they had actually been yoked to the plouph, or to some kind of carriages, and been obliged to draw like beasts of burden. In this way St. Jerome understood the passage; and this has the more likelihood, as in the next verse God is represented as cutting them off from these draughts. |
10 Canst thou bind [07194] the unicorn [07214] with his band [05688] in the furrow [08525]? or will he harrow [07702] the valleys [06010] after [0310] thee?
3 The plowers [02790] plowed [02790] upon my back [01354]: they made long [0748] their furrows [04618] [04618].
3 Let us break [05423] their bands [04147] asunder [05423], and cast away [07993] their cords [05688] from us.
6 Let not them that wait [06960] on thee, O Lord [0136] GOD [03069] of hosts [06635], be ashamed [0954] for my sake: let not those that seek [01245] thee be confounded [03637] for my sake, O God [0430] of Israel [03478].
16 O LORD [03068], truly [0577] I am thy servant [05650]; I am thy servant [05650], and the son [01121] of thine handmaid [0519]: thou hast loosed [06605] my bonds [04147].
4 I sought [01875] the LORD [03068], and he heard [06030] me, and delivered [05337] me from all my fears [04035].
2 Yet I will distress [06693] Ariel [0740], and there shall be heaviness [08386] and sorrow [0592]: and it shall be unto me as Ariel [0740].
14 And that first [07223] slaughter [04347], which Jonathan [03129] and his armourbearer [05375] [03627] made [05221], was about twenty [06242] men [0376], within as it were an half [02677] acre [04618] of land [07704], which a yoke [06776] of oxen might plow.
13 Ye have plowed [02790] wickedness [07562], ye have reaped [07114] iniquity [05766]; ye have eaten [0398] the fruit [06529] of lies [03585]: because thou didst trust [0982] in thy way [01870], in the multitude [07230] of thy mighty men [01368].
8 Even as I have seen [07200], they that plow [02790] iniquity [0205], and sow [02232] wickedness [05999], reap [07114] the same.
23 But I will put [07760] it into the hand [03027] of them that afflict [03013] thee; which have said [0559] to thy soul [05315], Bow down [07812], that we may go over [05674]: and thou hast laid [07760] thy body [01460] as the ground [0776], and as the street [02351], to them that went over [05674].
12 Thou hast caused men [0582] to ride [07392] over our heads [07218]; we went [0935] through fire [0784] and through water [04325]: but thou broughtest us out [03318] into a wealthy [07310] place.