Zephaniah 3:17 · Symbol · Joy
The Words Simchah and Chara
Simchah in Hebrew and chara in Greek are Scripture's chief nouns for joy, and each heads a family of words for rejoicing.
The first verse in which simchah stands is Laban's complaint that Jacob left without a farewell of joy and singing, with tambourines and harps (Genesis 31:27).
The LORD your God is among you; He is mighty to save. He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you with His love; He will rejoice over you with singing.”
- The word
- שִׂמְחָה (simchah), H8057
- First appears
- Genesis 31:27 “Why did you run away secretly and deceive…”
Summary
Scripture's words for joy show that joy was heard and seen. The Hebrew words belong to feasts, songs, shouts and dancing, and God Himself is the one who rejoices over His people. The Greek words carry the same joy into the New Testament, where chairo is both the common greeting and the verb of Paul's command to rejoice always. The words of grief stand beside the words of joy, and in Jesus' promise grief turns into joy.
- Simchah (H8057) means joy, and Strong's gives its sense as glee, religious or festival.
- One verse of Zephaniah holds four Hebrew words of joy, and the LORD is the one who rejoices in all four.
- Chara (G5479) means joy, and chairo (G5463, 74 uses), to rejoice, was also the ordinary greeting.
- Agalliao, to exult, is Luke's word for the joy of Mary, of Jesus in the Holy Spirit and of the jailer at Philippi.
- Lype, grief, stands beside chara in John 16:20, where Jesus promises that the disciples' grief will turn to joy.
Four Words of Joy in One Verse
Zephaniah names the LORD as the one who rejoices over His people.
In the Hebrew of the Old Testament the chief noun is simchah, with the verb samach beside it and a cluster of words for shouting, singing, dancing and laughter. In the Greek of the New Testament the chief noun is chara, with the verb chairo and its relatives. These words carry the value of joy through the feasts of the Law, the psalms, the prophets, the Gospels and the letters of the apostles.
The commands to rejoice are written in these words, so the way the writers used them shows what they meant by joy. This word study answers one question: what did the writers of the Bible mean when they spoke of joy? It sets nineteen words side by side with their counts and follows the Hebrew words through the feasts and the songs. It then reads the Greek words on the lips of Mary, of Jesus and of Paul, sets the words of grief beside them, and gives four cautions for reading them.
In the Hebrew the LORD is the subject of two verbs, yasis, He will rejoice, from sus, and yagil, He will be glad, from gil. The two nouns are be-simchah, which the Berean text renders with gladness, and be-rinnah, which it renders with singing.
Nineteen Words of Joy and Grief
Samach, to rejoice, is the most common of the words, with 155 uses in the Hebrew Bible.
Ten Hebrew words and seven Greek words carry joy in Scripture, and two Greek words of grief stand beside them.
| Word | Sense | Uses | A verse and the form there |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hebrew words of joy | |||
| samach, שָׂמַח, H8055 | to rejoice | 155 | Deuteronomy 16:14, ve-samachta, and you will rejoice |
| simchah, שִׂמְחָה, H8057 | joy | 94 | Psalm 100:2, be-simchah, with joy |
| ranan, רָנַן, H7442 | to shout, usually for joy | 54 | Psalm 32:11, ve-harninu, and shout for joy |
| gil, גִּיל, H1523 | to rejoice | 45 | Habakkuk 3:18, agilah, I will rejoice |
| sachaq, שָׂחַק, H7832 | to laugh | 36 | 2 Samuel 6:21, ve-sichakti, and I will play |
| rinnah, רִנָּה, H7440 | a cry | 33 | Psalm 30:5, rinnah, a shout of joy |
| sus, שׂוּשׂ, H7797 | to rejoice | 27 | Isaiah 62:5, yasis, he will rejoice |
| sason, שָׂשׂוֹן, H8342 | rejoicing | 22 | Isaiah 35:10, sason, joy |
| chedvah, חֶדְוָה, H2304 | joy | 2 | Nehemiah 8:10, chedvat, the joy of |
| karar, כָּרַר, H3769 | to dance | 2 | 2 Samuel 6:14, mekharker, dancing |
| Greek words of joy | |||
| chairo, χαίρω, G5463 | to rejoice | 74 | Luke 15:5, chairon, rejoicing |
| chara, χαρά, G5479 | joy | 58 | John 15:11, chara, joy, twice |
| euphraino, εὐφραίνω, G2165 | to celebrate | 14 | Acts 2:26, euphranthe, was glad |
| agalliao, ἀγαλλιάω, G21 | to rejoice | 11 | Luke 1:47, egalliasen, rejoices |
| synchairo, συγχαίρω, G4796 | to rejoice with | 7 | Luke 15:6, syncharete, rejoice with |
| agalliasis, ἀγαλλίασις, G20 | joy | 5 | Luke 1:44, agalliasei, exultation |
| hilaros, ἱλαρός, G2431 | cheerful | 1 | 2 Corinthians 9:7, hilaron, a cheerful |
| Greek words of grief | |||
| lypeo, λυπέω, G3076 | to grieve | 26 | Mark 10:22, lypoumenos, grieving |
| lype, λύπη, G3077 | grief | 16 | John 16:22, lypen, grief |
rinnah, רִנָּה, H7440, sus, שׂוּשׂ, H7797, sason, שָׂשׂוֹן, H8342, chedvah, חֶדְוָה, H2304, karar, כָּרַר, H3769, Greek words of joy, chairo, χαίρω, G5463, chara, χαρά, G5479 and 8 more
Joy Heard from Afar
The Hebrew words for joy stand with feasts, songs, shouts and dancing.
On that day they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them great joy. The women and children also rejoiced, so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard from afar.At the dedication of the wall the verb samach stands three times and the noun simchah twice, and the joy is loud enough to be heard far off.
JOYS IN GOD'S PRESENCE
The psalmist says God will fill him with joy in His presence, and the Hebrew noun is the plural semachot.
THREE COMMANDS IN ONE LINE
The psalm closes with three plural commands to the righteous, from samach, gil and ranan.
LAUGHTER AND A RINGING CRY
When the LORD restored the captives of Zion, their mouths were filled with sechoq, laughter, and their tongues with rinnah.
A KING LEAPING AND DANCING
Michal saw David leaping and dancing, and the two verbs, pazaz and karar, each stand only twice in the Hebrew Bible.
I WILL CELEBRATE
David answers Michal with sachaq, a verb Strong's defines as to laugh and by implication to play.
GLADNESS AND JOY TOGETHER
The redeemed enter Zion with rinnah, and sason and simchah overtake them in the same verse.
THE JOY THAT IS A FORTRESS
Nehemiah joins chedvah, a word for joy that stands elsewhere only in 1 Chronicles 16:27, to ma'oz, which Strong's defines as a fortified place.
Laughter and a ringing cry, A king leaping and dancing, I will celebrate, Gladness and joy together, The joy that is a fortress
Four Cautions in Reading the Words
Four points the lexicons settle about reading the words for joy.
Chara, charis and the root fallacyG5479 and G5485
Chara, joy, and charis, grace, are built on the same root, and readers sometimes define joy as grace received. A word's meaning is set by how it is used, and in the New Testament chara means joy. The family likeness between the two words is real and may be shown, but it does not define either word.
Spinning round and creakingH1523 and H7442
Strong's gives gil the root sense to spin round under the influence of any violent emotion, and ranan the root sense to creak or to make a shrill sound. These notes belong to the history of each word. A verse with gil does not show that anyone turned in a circle. Brown, Driver and Briggs give rinnah as a ringing cry used in prayer to God as well as in joy (1 Kings 8:28; Psalm 17:1).
The Hebrew words overlapH8055, H8057, H1523, H7797 and H8342
Isaiah 35:10 sets sason beside simchah, and Zephaniah 3:17 sets gil and sus beside it. Brown, Driver and Briggs count 24 places where samach stands in parallel with gil. The standard lexicons do not rank these words by strength, so one of them is never read as a greater joy than another.
Strong's numbers and the standard lexiconsStrong's, BDB and Abbott-Smith
Strong's numbers are an index that ties an English word to its Hebrew or Greek word, and the short definitions beside them date from 1890. The standard Hebrew lexicon of the same age is Brown, Driver and Briggs (1906), and the Greek glosses in the site's lexicon come from a brief lexicon based on Abbott-Smith (1922).
Simchah at Israel's Feasts
Brown, Driver and Briggs give 46 uses of simchah a religious sense, most of them in the Psalms and Chronicles.
Brown, Driver and Briggs sort simchah into four senses: the gladness of festivity and of the heart, religious joy, the joy of the LORD, and a glad result. The third sense, the joy of the LORD, has a single verse under it. Under religious joy they list the ark brought up in 2 Samuel 6:12, and Nehemiah 8:12, where the Hebrew says the people made great simchah.
And you shall rejoice in your feast—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite, as well as the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widows among you.Moses commands the feast's joy with the verb samach, and the command reaches the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow as well as the household.
The Aramaic chapters of Ezra use their own form of chedvah once, when the returned exiles dedicated the rebuilt house of God (Ezra 6:16).
Chara and Its Family in Greek
Seven Greek words carry joy, and chairo serves both as a greeting and as a command.
The angel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”Gabriel greets Mary with chaire, the singular command form of chairo, the verb of rejoicing.
Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” They came to Him, grasped His feet, and worshiped Him.The risen Jesus greets the women with chairete, the plural of the command form Gabriel used.
The Tyndale House lexicon gives chairo two senses: to rejoice or be glad, and the greeting used on meeting someone. Paul writes chairete twice in Philippians 4:4, "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!", and the same form stands in 1 Thessalonians 5:16. The word of his command was also the word with which people greeted one another.
Agalliao in Luke and ActsG21, 11 uses
Agalliao, which Strong's defines as to jump for joy or to exult, occurs 11 times, and among its uses in Luke and Acts are these three.
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!Mary's song uses the aorist egalliasen for the joy of her spirit in God her Savior.
At that time Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and declared, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was well-pleasing in Your sight.Luke uses the form egalliasato when Jesus rejoices in the Holy Spirit.
Then he brought them into his home and set a meal before them. So he and all his household rejoiced that they had come to believe in God.The jailer's household rejoices with the same form egalliasato on the night they believe.
Synchairo, to rejoice withG4796, 7 uses
Synchairo joins the preposition with to chairo, and the lexicon gives it the senses to rejoice with and to congratulate. In Luke 15:6 the shepherd who finds his sheep calls his friends and neighbours with it: "Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep!"
Euphraino at the father's feastG2165, 14 uses
Euphraino, which the lexicon glosses to celebrate, is the father's word when he calls for the fattened calf, euphranthomen, let us be merry (Luke 15:23). At the close of the parable he joins it to chairo: "But it was fitting to celebrate and be glad" (Luke 15:32).
Hilaros, the cheerful giverG2431, 1 use
Hilaros, cheerful, has one use, in 2 Corinthians 9:7, where "God loves a cheerful giver". Paul sets that giver against giving "out of regret", and the word the Berean text renders regret is lype, grief.
Grief That Turns to Joy
John 16:20 holds both Greek words of grief and both chief words of joy in one verse.
Truly, truly, I tell you, you will weep and wail while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.Jesus uses lypeo and lype for the disciples' grief and chairo and chara for the world's rejoicing and the joy their grief will become.
sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.Paul sets a participle of lypeo beside a participle of chairo to describe one life lived in both at once.
In both verses grief and joy belong to the same people. The disciples' grief becomes their joy when Jesus sees them again (John 16:22), and Paul is sorrowful and always rejoicing at the same time.
Voices on the Words
Henry read the LORD's singing over His people as His delight.
1662 to 1714 · Matthew Henry
Commentary on the Whole Bible
The LORD loves to love His people
The quotation1 quotation, 1 paragraph
Henry finds in the verse a God who is pleased to love His people and sings over them.
“The great God not only loves his saints, but he loves to love them, is pleased that he has pitched upon these objects of his love. He will joy over them with singing. He that is grieved for the sin of sinners rejoices in the graces and services of the saints, and is ready to express that joy by singing over them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible · on Zephaniah 3:17Puritan
Books to Read Next
Two standard lexicons a reader can open in full, one Hebrew and one Greek.
A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament
Francis Brown, S. R. Driver and Charles A. Briggs · 1906
The entries for simchah, samach, gil and rinnah give the senses of each word with the verses for each sense.
Read on archive.orgA Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament
G. Abbott-Smith · 1922
The entries for chairo and synchairo give the senses with their New Testament verses, among them the greeting.
Read on archive.orgJoy Given and Commanded
The value of joy gathers these words into one teaching.
The words for joy in both Testaments begin with God, who rejoices over His people, and they reach His people as commands to rejoice before Him. The feast, the song, the dance and the greeting are the places where Scripture shows that joy.
Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him the glory. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready.The last book of the canon joins chairo and agalliao in the call to rejoice at the marriage of the Lamb.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- STEP Bible TBESH and TBESG glosses (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0), the Brief lexicon based on Abbott-Smith (1922), with the Strong's definitions (1890) the rows carry.
- The word-by-word morphology of the Hebrew and Greek text in the site's database.
- James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, with brief dictionaries of the Hebrew and Greek words of the original (1890)
- Francis Brown, S. R. Driver and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (Oxford, 1906), entries שִׂמְחָה (BDB09725), שָׂמַח (BDB09723), גִּיל (BDB01797) and רִנָּה (BDB09404)
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Zephaniah 3:17.
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