Psalms 129:1

Bible in Basic English (1941)

<A Song of the going up.> Great have been my troubles from the time when I was young (let Israel now say);

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

שִׁ֗יר הַֽמַּ֫עֲל֥וֹת רַ֭בַּת צְרָר֣וּנִי מִנְּעוּרַ֑י יֹֽאמַר־נָ֝א יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃

Transliteration

šîr the hammaʿălôt rabbat ṣərārûnî from nəʿûray yōʾmar-nāʾ yiśrāʾēl

Grammar Details

• *šîr*: construct noun, masculine singular - song of
• *hammaʿălôt*: definite article + noun, feminine plural - the ascents/steps/degrees
• *rabbat*: adverb, intensive form - greatly/much/many times
• *ṣərārûnî*: verb, Qal perfect, 3rd person plural with 1st person singular suffix - they have afflicted/oppressed me
• *nəʿûray*: noun, masculine plural construct with 1st person singular suffix - my youth
• *yōʾmar*: verb, Qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular - let say/speak
• *nāʾ*: particle of entreaty - now/please
• *yiśrāʾēl*: proper noun - Israel

Word Meanings

• *šîr* *hammaʿălôt*: song of ascents/pilgrim song/song of degrees
• *rabbat*: greatly/much/many times
• *ṣərārûnî*: afflicted me/oppressed me/harassed me/bound me
• *yōʾmar*-*nāʾ*: let say now/may say now/should say now

Referenced Verses

• Ps 124:1 : 1 <A Song of the going up. Of David.> If it had not been the Lord who was on our side (let Israel now say);
• Hos 2:15 : 15 And I will give her vine-gardens from there, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she will give her answer there as in the days when she was young, and as in the time when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
• Jer 2:2 : 2 Go and say in the ears of Jerusalem, The Lord says, I still keep the memory of your kind heart when you were young, and your love when you became my bride; how you went after me in the waste of sand, in an unplanted land.
• Hos 11:1 : 1 When Israel was a child he was dear to me; and I took my son out of Egypt.
• Ps 120:1 : 1 <A Song of the going up.> In my trouble my cry went up to the Lord, and he gave me an answer.
• Ps 121:1 : 1 <A Song of the going up.> My eyes are lifted up to the hills: O where will my help come from?
• Ps 122:1 : 1 <A Song of the going up. Of David.> I was glad because they said to me, We will go into the house of the Lord.
• Ps 123:1 : 1 <A Song of the going up.> To you my eyes are lifted up, even to you whose seat is in the heavens.
• Ps 125:1 : 1 <A Song of the going up.> Those whose hope is in the Lord are like the mountain of Zion, which may not be moved, but keeps its place for ever.
• Ps 126:1 : 1 <A Song of the going up.> When the Lord made a change in Zion's fate, we were like men in a dream.
• Ps 127:1 : 1 <A Song of the going up. Of Solomon.> If the Lord is not helping the builders, then the building of a house is to no purpose: if the Lord does not keep the town, the watchman keeps his watch for nothing.
• Ps 128:1 : 1 <A Song of the going up.> Happy is the worshipper of the Lord, who is walking in his ways.
• Isa 47:12 : 12 Go on now with your secret arts, and all your wonder-working, to which you have given yourself up from your earliest days; it may be that they will be of profit to you, or by them you may put fear into your attackers.
• Exod 1:12-14 : 12 But the more cruel they were to them, the more their number increased, till all the land was full of them. And the children of Israel were hated by the Egyptians. 13 And they gave the children of Israel even harder work to do: 14 And made their lives bitter with hard work, making building-material and bricks, and doing all sorts of work in the fields under the hardest conditions.
• Exod 1:22 : 22 And Pharaoh gave orders to all his people, saying, Every son who comes to birth is to be put into the river, but every daughter may go on living.
• Exod 5:7-9 : 7 Give these men no more dry stems for their brick-making as you have been doing; let them go and get the material for themselves. 8 But see that they make the same number of bricks as before, and no less: for they have no love for work; and so they are crying out and saying, Let us go and make an offering to our God. 9 Give the men harder work, and see that they do it; let them not give attention to false words. 10 And the overseers of the people and their responsible men went out and said to the people, Pharaoh says, I will give you no more dry stems. 11 Go yourselves and get dry stems wherever you are able; for your work is not to be any less. 12 So the people were sent in all directions through the land of Egypt to get dry grass for stems. 13 And the overseers went on driving them and saying, Do your full day's work as before when there were dry stems for you. 14 And the responsible men of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh's overseers had put over them, were given blows, and they said to them, Why have you not done your regular work, in making bricks as before? 15 Then the responsible men of the children of Israel came to Pharaoh, protesting and saying, Why are you acting in this way to your servants? 16 They give us no dry stems and they say to us, Make bricks: and they give your servants blows; but it is your people who are in the wrong. 17 But he said, You have no love for work: that is why you say, Let us go and make an offering to the Lord. 18 Go now, get back to your work; no dry stems will be given to you, but you are to make the full number of bricks. 19 Then the responsible men of the children of Israel saw that they were purposing evil when they said, The number of bricks which you have to make every day will be no less than before.
• Judg 2:15 : 15 Wherever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord had taken his oath it would be; and things became very hard for them.
• Judg 3:8 : 8 So the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel, and he gave them up into the hands of Cushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia; and the children of Israel were his servants for eight years.
• Judg 10:8-9 : 8 And that year the children of Israel were crushed under their yoke; for eighteen years all the children of Israel on the other side of Jordan, in the land of the Amorites which is in Gilead, were cruelly crushed down. 9 And the children of Ammon went over Jordan, to make war against Judah and Benjamin and the house of Ephraim; and Israel was in great trouble. 10 Then the children of Israel, crying out to the Lord, said, Great is our sin against you, for we have given up our God and have been servants to the Baals. 11 And the Lord said to the children of Israel, Were not the Egyptians and the Amorites and the children of Ammon and the Philistines 12 And the Zidonians and Amalek and Midian crushing you down, and in answer to your cry did I not give you salvation from their hands?
• 1 Sam 13:19 : 19 Now there was no iron-worker in all the land of Israel: for the Philistines said, For fear the Hebrews make themselves swords or spears:
• Ezra 4:1-9 : 1 Now news came to the haters of Judah and Benjamin that the people who had come back were building a Temple to the Lord, the God of Israel; 2 Then they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of families, and said to them, Let us take part in the building with you; for we are servants of your God, even as you are; and we have been making offerings to him from the days of Esar-haddon, king of Assyria, who put us here. 3 But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of families in Israel said to them, You have no part with us in the building of a house for our God; we ourselves will do the work together for the Lord, the God of Israel, as Cyrus, king of Persia, has given us orders. 4 Then the people of the land made the hands of the people of Judah feeble, troubling them with fear in their building; 5 And they gave payment to men who made designs against them and kept them from effecting their purpose, all through the time of Cyrus, king of Persia, till Darius became king. 6 And in the time of Ahasuerus, when he first became king, they put on record a statement against the people of Judah and Jerusalem. 7 And in the time of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of his friends, sent a letter to Artaxerxes, king of Persia, writing it in the Aramaean writing and language. 8 Rehum, the chief ruler, and Shimshai the scribe, sent a letter against Jerusalem, to Artaxerxes the king; 9 The letter was sent by Rehum, the chief ruler, and Shimshai the scribe and their friends; the Dinaites and the Apharsathchites, the Tarpelites, the Apharsites, the Archevites, the Babylonians, the Shushanchites, the Dehaites, the Elamites, 10 And the rest of the nations which the great and noble Osnappar took over and put in Samaria and the rest of the country over the river: 11 This is a copy of the letter which they sent to Artaxerxes the king: Your servants living across the river send these words: 12 We give news to the king that the Jews who came from you have come to us at Jerusalem; they are building up again that uncontrolled and evil town; the walls are complete and they are joining up the bases. 13 The king may be certain that when the building of this town and its walls is complete, they will give no tax or payment in goods or forced payments, and in the end it will be a cause of loss to the kings. 14 Now because we are responsible to the king, and it is not right for us to see the king's honour damaged, we have sent to give the king word of these things, 15 So that search may be made in the book of the records of your fathers: and you will see in the book of the records that this town has been uncontrolled, and a cause of trouble to kings and countries, and that there were outbursts against authority there in the past: for which reason the town was made waste. 16 We give you word, that if the building of this town and its walls is made complete, there will be an end of your power in the country across the river. 17 Then the king sent an answer to Rehum, the chief ruler, and Shimshai the scribe, and their friends living in Samaria, and to the rest of those across the river, saying, Peace to you: 18 And now the sense of the letter which you sent to us has been made clear to me, 19 And I gave orders for a search to be made, and it is certain that in the past this town has made trouble for kings, and that outbursts against authority have taken place there. 20 Further, there have been great kings in Jerusalem, ruling over all the country across the river, to whom they gave taxes and payments in goods and forced payments. 21 Give an order now, that these men are to do nothing more, and that the building of the town is to be stopped, till I give an order. 22 Be certain to do this with all care: do not let trouble be increased to the king's damage. 23 Then, after reading the king's letter, Rehum and Shimshai the scribe and their friends went quickly to Jerusalem, to the Jews, and had them stopped by force.
• Ps 88:15 : 15 I have been troubled and in fear of death from the time when I was young; your wrath is hard on me, and I have no strength.
• Jer 22:21 : 21 My word came to you in the time of your well-being; but you said, I will not give ear. This has been your way from your earliest years, you did not give attention to my voice.
• Lam 1:3 : 3 Judah has been taken away as a prisoner because of trouble and hard work; her living-place is among the nations, there is no rest for her: all her attackers have overtaken her in a narrow place.
• Ezek 23:3 : 3 They were acting like loose women in Egypt; when they were young their behaviour was loose: there their breasts were crushed, even the points of their young breasts were crushed.