Hallelujah
religious interjection derived from Hebrew
Hallelujah (Hebrew: הַלְּלוּ־יָהּ, meaning "praise Jah"; often translated as "praise the Lord") is an emphatic exclamation used as an expression of gratitude and adoration. The term is used 24 times in the Hebrew Bible (in the book of Psalms), twice in deuterocanonical books, and four times in the Christian Book of Revelation. The phrase is used in Judaism as part of the Hallel prayers, and in Christian prayer, where since the earliest times it is used, especially those of the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, both of which use the form "alleluia".
- See also: Hallelujah (disambiguation)
Quotes
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- Now, I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this: the fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
- You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did, well really, what's it to you?
There's a blaze of light in every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah- Leonard Cohen, "Hallelujah" (1984)
- I remember when I moved in you
And the holy dove she was moving too,
And every single breath that we drew was
Hallelujah.- Leonard Cohen, "Hallelujah" (1984)
- I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you.
And even though it all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah.- Leonard Cohen, "Hallelujah" (1984)
- I know there is an eye that watches all of us. There is a judgment that weighs everything we do. And before this great force, which is greater than any government, I stand in awe and I kneel in respect, and it is to this great judgment that I dedicate this next song, "Hallelujah".
- Leonard Cohen, Introducing "Hallelujah", Concert at Congress Hall in the Palace of Culture, Warsaw, Poland (22 March 1985)
Mmm, my Lord (Hallelujah)
My, my, my Lord (Hallelujah)
~ George Harrison
- My sweet Lord (Hallelujah)
Hm, my Lord (Hallelujah)
My, my, my Lord (Hallelujah)
I really want to know you (Hallelujah)
Really want to go with you (Hallelujah)
Really want to show you Lord (ahh)
That it won't take long, my Lord (Hallelujah)
Hmm (Hallelujah)
My sweet Lord (Hallelujah)
My, my, Lord (Hallelujah)
Hm, my Lord (Hare Krishna)
My, my, my Lord (Hare Krishna)- George Harrison, My Sweet Lord (1970)
- My idea in "My Sweet Lord," because it sounded like a "pop song," was to sneak up on them a bit.' The point was to have the people not offended by "Hallelujah", and by the time it gets to "Hare Krishna," they're already hooked, and their foot's tapping, and they're already singing along "Hallelujah,".... And then suddenly it turns into "Hare Krishna," and they will all be singing that before they know what's happened, and they will think, "Hey, I thought I wasn't supposed to like Hare Krishna!"
- George Harrison in Interview with Mukunda Goswami (4 September 1982)
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- The Oxford English Dictionary defines hallelujah as “a song or shout of praise to God,” but biblical scholars will tell you it’s actually a smash-up of two Hebrew words: “hallel” meaning “to praise” and “jah” meaning Yahweh, or God. But that’s just the official meaning. For Grant Gershon, director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, hallelujah is a perfect word because it can take on different meanings. “It’s this sound that is just so full of possibilities,” he said. “You can fill it with whatever you need to say or communicate.” In Handel’s great chorus, the word is joyous, victorious, accompanied by trumpets and drums. In Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “All Night Vigil,” however, hallelujah reflects a more quiet devotion. Repeated over and over again, it serves... as a mantra.
- Hallelujah! The remarkable story behind this joyful word, by Deborah Netburnst], Los Angeles Times December 20, 2021
