Translations
A Song of degrees. In my distress I cried unto the LORD, and he heard me.
A Song of the Ascents.
In my distress I called out to YHWH, and He answered me.
A Song of the Steps.
Out of the depths of my distress, I cried to Yahweh, and He answered.
A song of ascents. In my distress I cried to the LORD, and He answered me.
Footnotes
Shir HaMa'alot is literally "Song of the Goings-Up" or "Song of the Steps." These fifteen psalms (120–134) were likely sung by pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem for the three annual feasts, or possibly by Levites ascending the fifteen steps of the inner Temple court. Tsarah, rendered "distress," literally means a tight, narrow place—the visceral sensation of being hemmed in with no way out. F.O.G. preserves the Hebrew title as a liturgical header; F.O.G.M. renders it in traditional English while foregrounding the pilgrim journey upward—a journey this psalm begins in anguish, not triumph.

