Psalms 129:3 - Exposition

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."