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מִמַּעֲמַקִּים
Mima‘amakim
Psalm 130 — “Out of the depths”
Text & translation
שִׁיר הַמַּעֲלוֹת מִמַּעֲמַקִּים קְרָאתִיךָ יְיָ
Shir hama’alot. Mima’amakim k’ratikha Adonai.
A Song of Ascents. Out of the depths I call to You, God.
אֲדֹנָי שִׁמְעָה בְקוֹלִי תִּהְיֶינָה אׇזְנֶיךָ קַשֻּׁבוֹת לְקוֹל תַּחֲנוּנָי
Adonai shimʿah v’koli, tihyenah oznekha kashuvot l’kol taḥanunai.
O God, hear my voice; let Your ears be attentive to my pleading voice.
אִם־עֲוֺנוֹת תִּשְׁמׇר־יָהּ אֲדֹנָי מִי יַעֲמֹד
Im ʿavonot tishmor Yah, Adonai mi yaʿamod.
If You kept account of sins, O God, who could stand?
כִּי־עִמְּךָ הַסְּלִיחָה לְמַעַן תִּוָּרֵא
Ki ʿimm’kha hasliḥah, l’maʿan tivvare.
But forgiveness is with You, that You may be held in awe.
קִוִּיתִי יְיָ קִוְּתָה נַפְשִׁי וְלִדְבָרוֹ הוֹחָלְתִּי
Kivviti Adonai kiv’tah nafshi, v’lidvaro hoḥalti.
I wait for God; my soul waits, and for God’s word I hope.
נַפְשִׁי לַאדֹנָי מִשֹּׁמְרִים לַבֹּקֶר שֹׁמְרִים לַבֹּקֶר
Nafshi la-Adonai mishom’rim laboker, shom’rim laboker.
My soul longs for God more than watchers for the morning, watchers for the morning.
יַחֵל יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶל־יְיָ כִּי־עִם־יְיָ הַחֶסֶד וְהַרְבֵּה עִמּוֹ פְדוּת
Yaḥel Yisrael el Adonai, ki ʿim Adonai haḥesed v’harbeh ʿimmo f’dut.
Let Israel hope in God, for with God is kindness, and abundant redemption.
וְהוּא יִפְדֶּה אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵל מִכֹּל עֲוֺנֹתָיו
V’hu yifdeh et Yisrael mikkol ʿavonotav.
And God will redeem Israel from all its sins.
Psalm 130 in full.
About this piece
Psalm 130, a Song of Ascents and one of the penitential psalms, sung in the Days of Awe and on other occasions of pleading.
A cry from the depths met by the assurance that “with God there is forgiveness.”
Recordings — Daniel Halfon
New York - London
In the living tradition
This music is the prayer of a living rite. It is sung today at Kehillah Kedoshah Zikhron Zvi, the egalitarian Western Sephardi congregation of the Hudson Valley — the community at the endpoint of the Program’s Sephardi Liturgy project.