The plowers plowed upon my back: they made long their furrows.
It stands among the Psalms of Ascent, the songs chanted by pilgrims as they drew near to Jerusalem and its temple in worship. It belongs also with the songs of the Jewish exiles coming back from Babylonian captivity. Those returning songs carry mingled joy and sorrow and anxiety together.
Its image is that of plowers cutting long furrows across the speaker's back, a figure of severe oppression. In that figure it sets forth Israel's suffering under Babylonian captivity, when captors oppressed and humiliated the people as though driving the plow in long furrows over their backs.
It stands among the Psalms of Ascent, the songs chanted by pilgrims as they drew near to Jerusalem and its temple in worship. It belongs also with the songs of the Jewish exiles coming back from Babylonian captivity. Those returning songs carry mingled joy and sorrow and anxiety together.
Its image is that of plowers cutting long furrows across the speaker's back, a figure of severe oppression. In that figure it sets forth Israel's suffering under Babylonian captivity, when captors oppressed and humiliated the people as though driving the plow in long furrows over their backs.