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Psalm 129:3

The plowers plowed on my back. They made their furrows long.

1A Song of Ascents. Many times they have afflicted me from my youth up. Let Israel now say:
2many times they have afflicted me from my youth up, yet they have not prevailed against me.
3The plowers plowed on my back. They made their furrows long.
4The LORD is righteous. He has cut apart the cords of the wicked.
5Let them be disappointed and turned backward, all those who hate Zion.
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← Psalm 129:2Psalm 129:4 →
Notice

Plowers treating a back as soil make Israel’s affliction hard to soften: the harm is brutal, and the furrows are long.

Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.

What does the word “long” add to Israel’s account of what was done?

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What harm, if any, comes to mind when you read about furrows across a back?

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Connect

Where else Scripture says this

5 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.

This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Isaiah 51:23I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to your soul, ‘Bow down, that we may walk over you;’ and you have laid your back as the …Both passages picture an afflicted person’s back treated as ground, exposing the cruelty of those who hurt God’s people.
Psalm 141:7“As when one plows and breaks up the earth, our bones are scattered at the mouth of Sheol.”Both use plowing imagery to describe bodily devastation: furrows across a back in one, bones scattered like broken earth in the other.
Mark 15:15Pilate, wishing to please the multitude, released Barabbas to them, and handed over Jesus, when he had flogged him, to be crucified.The psalm pictures bodily violence through plowing; Mark records the bodily violence Jesus suffered when Pilate had him flogged.
John 19:1So Pilate then took Jesus and flogged him.John records Jesus being flogged, sharing the psalm’s concern with bodily suffering without identifying this verse as a prediction.
Job 39:10Can you hold the wild ox in the furrow with his harness? Or will he till the valleys after you?Both mention furrows, though Job describes an animal’s farm work and the psalm uses farming language for human affliction.
Where this verse fits

Injustice and anger. church hurt.

What the Bible says about anger →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Read Psalm 129:3–4 aloud, pausing after each verse

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Encouragement

Israel’s song leaves the wounds in plain view. Its next words name YHWH as righteous; the cruelty belongs to the oppressors, and God has cut their cords.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 129:3. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.

Keep goingPsalm 129 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).