Psalm 129:3

The plowers plowed upon my back: they made long their furrows.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(3) Furrows.—The Hebrew word only occurs once besides, in 1Samuel 14:14, where the margin renders as here, furrow—a rendering which plainly there is not intelligible. “Half a furrow of an acre of land,” as a space in which twenty men were killed, gives no clear idea to the mind. But Dr. J. G. Wettstein, in his excursus at the end of Delitzsch’s Commentary, explains the ma’an to be the strip of ground which the ploughman takes in hand at one time, and round which consequently at the end of each furrow the plough turns. Delitzsch’s “furrow-strip,” therefore, more exactly reproduces the word, though here doubtless it is used with a poetic freedom and may be translated furrow. The double image, suggesting the lash given to a slave, and at the same time the actual and terrible imprints of oppression left on the country as well as the race, is as striking as poetry ever produced. It, in fact, combines two separate prophetic figures, Isaiah 1:6; Isaiah 51:23.

Benson Commentary

Psalm 129:3-4. The ploughers ploughed upon my back — They not only threw me down and trod me under foot, but cruelly wounded, mangled, and tormented me, and had no more pity upon me than the plough-man hath upon the earth which he cuts at his pleasure. He saith, upon my back, either because they did literally scourge the captives upon their backs with such cords as are mentioned Psalm 129:4, although we do not read that the Israelitish captives were thus used by any of their enemies, or by way of allusion to that usage, which made a sort of furrows on the backs of those whom they thus scourged. They made long their furrows — They often repeated their injuries, and prolonged my torments. Thus, for our sakes, he who knew no sin gave his back to the smiters, (Isaiah 50:6,) and permitted those ploughers to make long their furrows upon it. But, (Psalm 129:4,) The righteous Lord cut asunder the cords of the wicked — Defeated their schemes and projects, frustrated their designs, and brought ruin on them by those very means whereby they endeavoured to effect the destruction of the rising church. Vengeance overtook the wretched instruments of the Messiah’s sufferings; and the persecutors of his servants, in all ages, shall perish in like manner, as the psalmist proceeds to assure us in the verses following.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

129:1-4 The enemies of God's people have very barbarously endeavoured to wear out the saints of the Most High. But the church has been always graciously delivered. Christ has built his church upon a rock. And the Lord has many ways of disabling wicked men from doing the mischief they design against his church. The Lord is righteous in not suffering Israel to be ruined; he has promised to preserve a people to himself.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3, 4. The ploughing is a figure of scourging, which most severe physical infliction aptly represents all kinds.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Ploughed upon my back; they have not only thrown me down, and trod me under foot, but have cruelly tormented me, wounded and mangled me, and had no more pity upon me than the ploughman hath upon the earth which he cuts up at his pleasure. He saith,

upon my back, either because they did literally scourge the captives upon their backs with such cords as are mentioned Psalm 129:4, although we do not read that the Israelitish captives were thus used by any of their enemies; or by way of allusion to that usage, which made a sort of furrows in their backs, upon which they used to lay on their strokes.

They made long their furrows; they oft repeated their injuries and prolonged my torments.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The ploughers ploughed upon my back,.... "Sinners", as the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Arabic versions, render it; such that plough iniquity, and sow wickedness, Job 4:8; which may be understood of their carrying Israel captive, when they put yokes and bonds upon their necks, as upon oxen when they plough, as Arama interprets it; or it may design the destruction of their high places, signified by the back, such as the temple, the royal palace, and houses of their nobles, burnt with fire; yea, it was predicted that Zion should be ploughed as a field, Micah 3:12; and the Jews say that Turnus Rufus, the Roman general, as they call him, did plough up Jerusalem. The Syriac version is, "they whipped" their whips or scourges; with which many of the Israelites were scourged in the times of the Maccabees, Hebrews 11:36. And the Messiah himself, who gave his back to the smiters, and was buffeted and scourged by them, Isaiah 50:6; and many of his apostles and followers, Matthew 10:17. The Targum renders it

"upon my body;''

and Aben Ezra says the phrase is expressive of contempt and humiliation, and compares with it Isaiah 51:23;

they made long their furrows; which signify afflictions, and the pain their enemies put them to, and the distress they gave them; as no affliction is joyous, but grievous, but like the rending and tearing up the earth with the plough; and also the length and duration of afflictions; such were the afflictions of Israel in Egypt and in Babylon, and of the church of God under Rome Pagan and Papal; but, as the longest furrows have an end, so have the most lasting afflictions. The Syriac version is, "they prolonged their humiliation", or "affliction"; Kimchi says the meaning is,

"they would give us no rest from servitude and bondage.''

Geneva Study Bible

The plowers plowed upon my back: they made long their furrows.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

3. Plowers have plowed upon my dock] A bold metaphor for cruel maltreatment. Israel is imagined as thrown prostrate upon its face, while the remorseless foe drives the plough up and down over it, brutally lacerating its back. Cp. the similar figure in Isaiah 51:23. The use of the metaphor may have been facilitated by the common identification of the people with the land, and it may be intended to suggest the thought of the slave’s back torn and furrowed by the lash (Isaiah 50:6). We are reminded also of Micah 3:12, and of the story that a plough was driven over the site of the Temple by Terentius Rufus after the capture of Jerusalem by Titus, and again by Hadrian after the suppression of Bar Cocheba’s revolt.

they made long their furrows] According to Delitzsch, the word means more exactly the strip of land which is ploughed at one time, but the meaning will be the same: they did their cruel work thoroughly and spared nothing.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 3. - The plowers plowed upon my back. A strong metaphor, which does not elsewhere occur. The idea is perhaps taken from the cruel treatment of captives in those days, who, in certain cases, were "put under saws and harrows of iron" (2 Samuel 12:31), or, as it is elsewhere expressed, "threshed with threshing instruments of iron" (Amos 1:3). They made long their furrows; i.e. "lengthened out their tortures." Psalm 129:3

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Elsewhere it is said that the enemies have driven over Israel (Psalm 66:12), or have gone over its back (Isaiah 51:23); here the customary figurative language חרשׁ און in Job 4:8 (cf. Hosea 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 1 Samuel 14:14 is of opinion, although explaining the passage more correctly than Thenius) the furrow ( equals 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. . It is therefore: they drew their furrow-turning long (dative of the object instead of the accusative with Hiph., as e.g., in Isaiah 29:2, cf. with Piel in Psalm 34:4; Psalm 116:16, and Kal Psalm 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 Psalm 2:3; here, however, it is suggested by the metaphor in Psalm 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.