What Does Psalm 130:1 Mean?
A Song of degrees. From the deep hollows I have cried out to you, LORD.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
A Song of degrees. Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD.THE KEY
The cry from the depths is already a direct address: even at the lowest point, the voice is turned toward the LORD.
THE MEANING
The lowest place in your life does not make your voice directionless: the verse presents it as reaching toward the LORD. The depth is still named, and the cry is already addressed to him.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that your lowest state makes you unreachable to God: even there, the cry is addressed to the LORD.
THE ROOT
קְרָאתִיךָ
qerāʾtîḵā
GROWS FROM
קרא
q-r-ʾ
To call or summon; also to proclaim or read aloud.
“cried out” in this verse is qerāʾtîḵā. English “cried” can sound like a noise produced by pain; קרא (qara, to call or summon) makes this an addressed utterance. The same root reaches into calling, proclamation, and reading aloud, so the cry is already a form of turning toward someone.
ALSO GROWS
qōrēʾ: A person calling out or reading aloud.
קֹרֵא
The same root holds both a voice directed to someone and words spoken aloud.
miqrāʾ: A reading, proclamation, or called assembly.
מִקְרָא
The root’s range shows that calling is an act of making words heard, not only an expression of distress.
מַעֲמַקִּים
maʿămaqqîm
GROWS FROM
עמק
ʿ-m-q
To be deep.
“deep hollows” in this verse is maʿămaqqîm. The Hebrew word is plural, giving the line the image of “depths,” from the root עמק (ʿ-m-q, to be deep). Its branches include a deep lowland and the act of deepening: the verse names the extremity of the place while keeping the cry directed toward the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
ʿēmeq: A valley or low-lying place.
עֵמֶק
The root’s spatial sense makes the depths a felt low place, not just an abstract sadness.
heʿĕmîq: To make or become deep.
הֶעֱמִיק
This branch carries the sense of depth increasing, echoing how the verse gives full weight to the speaker’s low place.
THE PATTERN
Scripture frames the voice of distress as direct address to God, even from a place of deep trouble.
The aligned cry out, and the LORD hears, and snatches them out of all their narrow places.I called out to the LORD from my narrow place, and he answered me; from the belly of Sheol I cried out, and you heard and responded to my voice.For everyone who calls upon the nature of the LORD will be delivered.THE THREAD
I called out to the LORD from my narrow place, and he answered me; from the belly of Sheol I cried out, and you heard and responded to my voice.Jonah uses the same verb קרא (qara, to call) for his cry from affliction. His line also says the LORD heard him, giving this shared root connection an answer that Psalm 130:1 has not yet voiced.
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