en_tn/psa/124/001.md

General Information:

Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: rc://en/ta/man/translate/writing-poetry and rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-parallelism)

song of ascents

Possible meanings are 1) "song people sang while going up to Jerusalem for a celebration" or 2) "song people sang while going up the steps into the temple" or 3) "song whose words are like steps." See how you translated this in Psalms 120:1

If Yahweh had not been on our side ... then they would have swallowed us up alive

This is a hypothetical statement that describes a result that did not happen, because Yahweh was actually on their side. Alternate translation: "Yahweh was on our side ... so they were not able to swallow us up alive" (See: rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-hypo)

If Yahweh had not been on our side ... if it had not been Yahweh who was on our side

These two phrases mean the same thing. Alternate translation: "Without Yahweh's help ... without Yahweh's help" (See: rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-parallelism)