It means “praise the LORD!”: halelu, ‘you all, praise’, and Yah, a short form of God’s own name. In Psalm 150:1, the Hebrew word is halal (H1984): to praise, to celebrate, to speak highly of someone. Strong’s gives its first senses as ‘to be clear’ and ‘to shine’, and lists ‘to celebrate’ among its meanings.
Get DeepWordWhat the original says
Behind “Hallelujah” in this verse are two Hebrew words, and this screen is about the first: halal (said hah-LAHL).
It means to praise, to celebrate, to speak highly of someone. Strong’s gives its first senses as ‘to be clear’ and ‘to shine’, and lists ‘to celebrate’ among its meanings.
Here it is a command to many people: ‘you all, praise’. It is followed by Yah, so the verse opens ‘praise Yah’, which the Berean prints as one word, “Hallelujah!”. The Hebrew text writes it sometimes as one word and sometimes as two.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is ‘praise’ 91 times and ‘Hallelujah’ 24 times, all of those in the Psalms. It can also mean to boast, as in “My soul boasts in the LORD” (Psalm 34:2):
Word by word
| הַלְלוּ | יָהּ | הַלְלוּ | אֵל | בְּקָדְשׁוֹ | הַלְלוּהוּ | בִּרְקִיעַ |
| praise | The LORD | praise | God | in · sanctuary · his | praise · him | in · firmament of |
Original form
What this tells us
Psalm 150 is the last psalm in the Bible, and it is almost nothing but praise. Its six verses say where to praise God, why, and with what: “Praise Him for His mighty acts” (Psalm 150:2), with horn and harp, tambourine and dancing, strings and flute (Psalm 150:3–4). The whole book of Psalms ends here, on this word. The first word is halal, to praise. The verse opens with it, followed by God’s name: ‘you all, praise Yah’, which the Berean prints as “Hallelujah!”. So hallelujah is not a feeling or a sound effect. It is a sentence spoken to a crowd: praise the LORD, all of you. The same call runs through the last psalms of the book, several of which begin and end with it. Psalm 147 gives the reason in one breath: “How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and lovely to praise Him!” (Psalm 147:1). Think of a choir leader who turns to the whole room and says, sing! Praise in the Psalms is something people do together and out loud. You do not have to feel cheerful to say it. It is a call to turn toward God and name what he has done. What would you praise him for today?
What the original says
Behind “the LORD” in this verse is the Hebrew name Yah (said YAH).
It is a short form of God’s own name, YHWH, the name the Berean prints as ‘the LORD’. Strong’s calls it a contraction of that name, meaning the same.
This is the name itself, and it comes twice in the verse: in “praise the LORD!”, and again at the very end, after ‘praise’, where the Berean prints the two words together as “Hallelujah!”.
In the Berean Standard Bible, Yah is ‘the LORD’ 23 times, in capitals, the way the Berean prints God’s own name:
Word by word
| כֹּל | הַנְּשָׁמָה | תְּהַלֵּל | יָהּ | הַלְלוּ | יָהּ |
| every | breathing thing | let it praise | The LORD | praise | The LORD |
Original form
What this tells us
These are the last words of the book of Psalms. After the horns and harps and “resounding cymbals” of the verse before (Psalm 150:5), the call goes out to every living thing: “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!” The name behind “the LORD” here is Yah, a short form of God’s own name. It is also the second half of hallelujah: the verse ends ‘praise Yah’, which the Berean prints as “Hallelujah!”. So the word people sing carries God’s name inside it. Saying it is not praising an idea; it is calling on someone by name. The Hebrew word for “breath” here is the same one used at the beginning, when God “breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7). Everything that breathes has its breath from him, and the psalm asks that breath to come back to him as praise. Another psalm says it for one person: “I will praise the LORD all my life” (Psalm 146:2). If you have breath, this last verse of the Psalms includes you. What is one breath of praise you could give God today?
What the original says
Behind “The LORD” in this verse is the name Yah (said YAH), the same short name you hear at the end of hallelujah.
It is the same short form of God’s own name: Yah, the LORD.
Here Yah closes the first line: word for word, ‘my strength and song, Yah’. The Berean puts the name first: “The LORD is my strength and my song”.
The same line returns in Psalm 118:14 and Isaiah 12:2. In all, the Berean prints Yah as ‘the LORD’ 23 times:
Word by word
| עָזִּי | וְזִמְרָת | יָהּ | וַיְהִי | לִי | לִישׁוּעָה | זֶה |
| might · my | and · strength | The LORD | and · he has become | of · me | salvation | this |
Original form
What this tells us
Israel has just walked through the sea on dry ground, and the army that chased them is gone. “When Israel saw the great power that the LORD had exercised over the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD and believed in Him” (Exodus 14:31). Then Moses and the people sing one of the oldest songs in the Bible: “I will sing to the LORD, for He is highly exalted” (Exodus 15:1). The name behind “The LORD” here is Yah, the short form of God’s name, the same Yah at the end of hallelujah. Word for word the line runs ‘my strength and my song, Yah’. God is not only the reason for the song; he is called the song itself. This line was never forgotten. It comes back in the same words in Psalm 118: “The LORD is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation” (Psalm 118:14), and again in Isaiah 12:2. Then Miriam “took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women followed her with tambourines and dancing” (Exodus 15:20). Praise in the Bible often begins like this: someone looks back and sees what God has just done. Think of something God has brought you through, large or small. Could this line, my strength and my song, be yours too?
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Download on the App StoreWhat the original says
Behind “is praised” in this verse is halal again (said hah-LAHL), the first half of hallelujah.
It is the same word you met in Psalm 150:1: to praise, to celebrate.
This form describes something that is praised, a done-to form: ‘praised’ or ‘worthy to be praised’. The name of the LORD is not the one praising; it is the one being praised.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is ‘praise’ 91 times, as in “Hallelujah! Give praise, O servants of the LORD” at the start of this psalm (Psalm 113:1):
Word by word
| מִמִּזְרַח | שֶׁמֶשׁ | עַד | מְבוֹאוֹ | מְהֻלָּל | שֵׁם | יְהוָה |
| from · rising of | sun | to | setting · its | to be praised | name of | The LORD |
Original form
What this tells us
Psalm 113 begins with hallelujah and calls on the “servants of the LORD” to “praise the name of the LORD” (Psalm 113:1). It wants that praise to last “both now and forevermore” (Psalm 113:2), and in this verse it stretches the praise from one end of the sky to the other. The word behind “is praised” is halal again, here in a form for something being praised. The name of the LORD is praised from sunrise to sunset: through every hour of the day, and across every land the sun passes over on its way. The prophet Malachi uses the same picture: “For My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets” (Malachi 1:11). And the psalm gives a reason a few verses on: “He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the dump” (Psalm 113:7). Praise here is not only for God’s greatness but for his kindness to the people others overlook. Somewhere in the world the sun is rising right now, and someone there is praising God. You can add your voice to that long line today.
What the original says
Behind “the praises” in this verse is the Hebrew word tehillah (said teh-hil-LAH).
It means praise: a word or song of praise. Strong’s says it comes from halal, the first half of hallelujah. The Hebrew name of the book of Psalms, Tehillim, comes from it.
Here it is plural, ‘praises’, and tied to the next word: ‘praises of Israel’. God is pictured seated on them, “enthroned”.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is ‘praise’ 56 times, as in “His praise will always be on my lips” (Psalm 34:1):
Word by word
| וְאַתָּה | קָדוֹשׁ | יוֹשֵׁב | תְּהִלּוֹת | יִשְׂרָאֵל |
| and · you | holy | sitting | praises of | Israel |
Original form
What this tells us
Psalm 22 begins in anguish: “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1). Jesus prayed those words from the cross (Matthew 27:46). Just two verses later, in the middle of that cry, the psalmist says this. The word for “praises” is tehillah: praise, a song of praise, from the same root as halal. The Hebrew name of the book of Psalms comes from it. Here God is pictured as “enthroned on the praises of Israel”, seated on his people’s songs the way a king sits on his throne. The psalm does not move from pain to praise by pretending. It holds both, and later it turns: “I will proclaim Your name to my brothers; I will praise You in the assembly” (Psalm 22:22), because “He has not hidden His face from him, but has attended to his cry for help” (Psalm 22:24). Many Christians have prayed this psalm on their darkest days, because it gives words for both the question and the praise. Praise in the Bible is not only for good days. Could you say both parts of this psalm today, the honest why and the praise, and let God hold them together?
What the original says
Behind “Hallelujah” in this verse is the Greek word hallēlouia (said hal-lay-loo-ee-AH).
It is the Hebrew ‘praise Yah’ written in Greek letters. The New Testament did not translate it; it kept the sound, the way we keep ‘amen’.
This word, hallēlouia, never changes its ending: it is a borrowed shout, like ‘amen’. Here it is the first word of the crowd’s song.
It is in only one chapter of the Greek New Testament, Revelation 19, where the Berean has ‘Hallelujah’ 4 times, including “Amen, Hallelujah!” (Revelation 19:4):
Word by word
| οὐρανῷ | λεγόντων | ἁλληλουϊά | ἡ | σωτηρία |
| heaven | crying out | Hallelujah | the | salvation |
Original form
What this tells us
In the visions of Revelation, John has just seen the fall of the great city that set itself against God (Revelation 18). Now he hears heaven answer: “a sound like the roar of a great multitude in heaven”. In this one chapter the same shout rings out four times (Revelation 19:1–6). The word is hallēlouia: the Hebrew ‘praise Yah’ written in Greek letters. The New Testament kept the sound instead of translating it, the way we keep amen. So the song of the Psalms carries all the way to the last book of the Bible: “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God!” The elders join in, “Amen, Hallelujah!” (Revelation 19:4), and a voice from the throne says, “Praise our God, all you who serve Him” (Revelation 19:5). The last hallelujah of the Bible gives its reason in one line: “For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns” (Revelation 19:6). Christians read the visions of Revelation in different ways, but they agree on where this song points: God reigns, and the end belongs to him. When you sing hallelujah, you are joining a song that began in the Psalms and ends in heaven. What would it change to sing it as part of that crowd?
What the original says
Behind “praise” in this verse is the Greek word ainesis (said AH-ee-neh-sis).
It means praise, the act of praising. Strong’s adds that it can mean a thank offering.
This form, aineseōs, is the ‘of’ form: ‘a sacrifice of praise’. The writer explains it at once: “the fruit of lips that confess His name”.
It is used only here in the New Testament, and the Berean puts it as ‘praise’:
Word by word
| ἀναφέρωμεν | θυσίαν | αἰνέσεως | διὰ | παντὸς | τῷ | θεῷ |
| we may offer | sacrifice | of praise | through | all | the | to God |
Original form
What this tells us
Hebrews is written to believers who have already paid a price for following Jesus; they had “joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property” (Hebrews 10:34). Near the end the writer says, “For here we do not have a permanent city, but we are looking for the city that is to come” (Hebrews 13:14). Then he tells them what sacrifice is left for them to offer. The word for “praise” is ainesis: praising, the act of giving praise. In the Greek Old Testament the same phrase names the thank offering (Leviticus 7:12). Here the offering is no longer an animal but words: “the fruit of lips that confess His name.” It is meant to be constant: “let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise”. The next verse adds, “And do not neglect to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased” (Hebrews 13:16). Paul and Silas sang in prison at midnight, “praying and singing hymns to God” (Acts 16:25). Praise is called a sacrifice because it is often offered when it costs something. Hallelujah is not only for Sunday. What would it look like to offer this sacrifice, the fruit of your lips, on an ordinary weekday?
Behind "praise" are 24 different words
Your English Bible says "praise" 293 times. Behind it stand several Hebrew and Greek words:
Reflect
Read it as yours
The book of Psalms ends with this line. Read it slowly, and notice your own breath as you read:
Name it
Write down three things God has done that you could praise him for, and say hallelujah after each one.
Carry with you
What has God done this week that deserves a hallelujah from you?