Hallelujah #28
הַלְלוּיָהּ(halelu-yah)HebrewinterjectionStrong's H1984
Hallelujah — the Hebrew call to praise the LORD, combining the imperative praise (halelu) with the short form of God's covenant name (Yah), used throughout the Psalms and carried into Christian worship untranslated.
Hallelujah is a compound word built from halal, a verb meaning “to praise, boast in, or celebrate,” and Yah, the short form of God’s personal covenant name, YHWH. Together the word is an imperative call addressed to a plural audience: all of you, praise Yah. Unlike most Hebrew vocabulary, it passed into Greek, Latin, and modern languages essentially untranslated, retained as a liturgical exclamation rather than rendered into local words.
Biblical Usage
The word opens or closes several psalms as a framing exclamation of praise — Psalm 146:1 begins, “Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD, O my soul!” — and Psalm 150, the Psalter’s closing doxology, repeats the call in an escalating series naming instrument after instrument, ending “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD!” (Psalm 150:1-6).
Theological Significance
Revelation is the only place the word appears in the New Testament, where a great multitude in heaven cries “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God” (Revelation 19:1-6) at the announcement of God’s final judgment and the marriage of the Lamb — carrying this ancient Hebrew shout of praise all the way into the Bible’s closing vision.
Key References
- Psalm 146:1
- Psalm 150:1-6
- Revelation 19:1-6