Psalms 129:3

“The ploughers ploughed upon my back, etc.] “Sinners”, as the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Arabic versions, render it; such that plough iniquity, and sow wickedness, (<180408>Job 4:8 <281013>Hosea 10:13); 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, (<330312>Micah 3:12); and the Jews say that Turnus Rufus, the Roman general, as they call him, did plough up…”

“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…”

“129:3-4 the Lord is good: He rescued Israel from Egypt, from many enemy attacks, and from the Babylonian exile.”

“The plowers: Psa 141:7; Isa 51:23 Psalms 129:4”

“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…”