Hallelujah

Hallelujah (Hebrew, meaning praise ye Jehovah) is a compound imperative combining hallelu (praise ye) and Jah (the abbreviated form of the divine name Yahweh). It appears as an exclamation of praise in many of the Psalms (e.g., 106, 111–113, 117, 135, 146–150), typically opening or closing a psalm, and became a standard liturgical expression in both Jewish and Christian worship. The Septuagint transliterates it as Allelouia, the form that passed into Greek, Latin, and all Western Christian traditions.

In the New Testament, Hallelujah appears exclusively in Revelation 19:1–6, in a passage depicting the heavenly multitude's fourfold shout of praise celebrating God's judgment on Babylon and the coming of the marriage of the Lamb. The fourfold repetition—Alleluia! (vv. 1, 3, 4, 6)—echoes the Hallel psalms and creates the climactic doxological moment of the Apocalypse. The word has remained untranslated in Christian liturgy across all centuries and traditions, functioning as a universal cry of worship recognizable across linguistic boundaries.