Greek · Strong's G239
ἁλληλουϊά
hallēlouïá (hal-lay-loo-EE-ah)
interjection (Hebrew loanword)
A Hebrew liturgical shout—"Praise Yahweh!"—carried untranslated into Greek and reserved in the New Testament for the worship of heaven.
Hallelujah is a transliterated Hebrew imperative: hallelu ("praise!") + yah (the shortened covenant name of God, Yahweh). It appears constantly in the Psalter (especially Psalms 113-118, the Hallel; and 146-150, the final Hallel), where it frames Israel's corporate worship.
In the New Testament the word appears only four times, all in Revelation 19:1-6, where it bursts from the "great multitude in heaven" at the fall of Babylon and the wedding feast of the Lamb. Its placement is deliberate: when the redeemed see God's judgment vindicated and His kingdom consummated, the language they reach for is the ancient Hebrew shout. The transliteration—rather than translation—signals continuity between Old Testament Israel and the New Testament church: the same Yahweh is being praised, with the same word, by one redeemed people.
Unlike "amen," hallelujah is not a personal response but a call. It commands praise, summoning others to join. To say it is to claim a place in the worshipping assembly of heaven and earth.
Common English renderings
- Alleluia
- Hallelujah
- Praise the LORD
Key verses
"After these things I heard as it were a great voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, Hallelujah; Salvation, and glory, and power, belong to our God:"
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"And a second time they say, Hallelujah. And her smoke goeth up for ever and ever."
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"And the four and twenty elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God that sitteth on the throne, saying, Amen; Hallelujah."
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"And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunders, saying, Hallelujah: for the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigneth."
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Related words