To be bright , i.e. cheerful
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through theConnect page. Screenshots are helpful.
שׂוּשׂ (sus) is a Hebrew verb for rejoicing, exulting, or being glad. Its 27 occurrences include people rejoicing in God's salvation and instruction, Zion and creation rejoicing in restoration, enemies rejoicing over disaster, and God rejoicing to do good or rejoicing over a restored people.
Reader summary
Full entry for שׂוּשׂ (H7797) · Open the biblical lexicon
שׂוּשׂ (sus) is a Hebrew verb for rejoicing, exulting, or being glad. Its 27 occurrences include people rejoicing in God's salvation and instruction, Zion and creation rejoicing in restoration, enemies rejoicing over disaster, and God rejoicing to do good or rejoicing over a restored people.
The BSB source-word alignment has 27 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include rejoice (3), will rejoice (2), . . . (1), and exult (1), and rejoices (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Deuteronomy 28:63. Its strongest book concentrations include Isaiah (9), Psalms (7), Deuteronomy (4), Job (2).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
שׂוּשׂ (sus) is a Hebrew verb for rejoicing, exulting, or being glad. Its 27 occurrences include people rejoicing in God's salvation and instruction, Zion and creation rejoicing in restoration, enemies rejoicing over disaster, and God rejoicing to do good or rejoicing over a restored people. The verb names joy in context; it does not by itself define that joy as quiet, sustained, spontaneous, or morally right.
Isaiah 61:10 voices abundant rejoicing in the Lord because God has clothed the speaker with salvation and righteousness. Psalms 35 and 119 similarly give joy an identifiable ground in the Lord, salvation, testimony, and promise. Isaiah's restoration visions invite Jerusalem and those who love her to rejoice, while Lamentations records hostile rejoicing over Jerusalem's fall. The same verb can therefore describe joy whose object is faithful and joy whose object is cruel.
Several passages say that God rejoices. Deuteronomy 30:9 and Jeremiah 32:41 portray divine delight in doing good to a restored people; Isaiah 62:5 uses bridegroom imagery; Zephaniah 3:17 portrays the Lord rejoicing over Zion. Deuteronomy 28:63 also uses the verb in covenant-judgment language. These texts should be taught within their literary and covenant settings rather than reduced to claims about fluctuating divine mood.
H7797 appears in songs, promises of restoration, covenant warnings, laments, wisdom reflection, and prayers. Subjects include God, God's people, enemies, the land, and vivid figures such as a bridegroom or war horse.
In the restoration promise, the Lord again rejoices over the people's good as he rejoiced over their ancestors.
The speaker greatly rejoices in the Lord because salvation and righteousness are pictured as garments supplied by God.
The prophet compares God's rejoicing over Zion with a bridegroom rejoicing over a bride, within a restoration oracle.
God promises to rejoice in doing good to the restored people and to plant them faithfully in the land.
Jerusalem laments that enemies heard of her distress and rejoiced, showing that the verb does not approve every joy it describes.
The restoration poem depicts the Lord present to save and rejoicing over Zion with gladness and song.
In bitter lament, Job describes those who rejoice exceedingly when they find the grave; the verse voices anguish and requires pastoral care.
The psalmist resolves that the self will rejoice in the Lord and exult in God's salvation.
The psalmist rejoices in the way of God's testimonies as in great riches.
Joy in God's promise is compared with finding great spoil.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Hebrew word. External brightness manifests internal joy; exuberant gladness expressed through visible radiance and celebration
External brightness manifests internal joy; exuberant gladness expressed through visible radiance and celebration
to be bright, i.e. cheerful BDB: exult Usage: be glad, × greatly, joy, make mirth, rejoice.
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 27 lexical occurrence verses.
שׂוּשׂ is a primitive root - no further derivation.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H7797 directs attention to the ground and object of joy. Scripture can commend rejoicing in God, salvation, promise, and restoration while condemning or lamenting joy over another's calamity. Divine-rejoicing passages communicate covenant purpose and delight through humanly intelligible imagery, but they should not be turned into speculative psychology. Calls to rejoice must not demand a performed mood from people living with grief, trauma, depression, or danger.
Job 3 especially requires care: language about welcoming death should lead a community toward compassionate presence and safety support, not rebuke. Lamentations further warns that joy can become cruel when it feeds on another community's collapse. Faithful teaching therefore examines who rejoices, over what, and within which promise, warning, lament, or poetic image.
It can invite hope while allowing sorrow to remain truthful and communal care to remain concrete.
Isa.61.10
H7797 is a verb of rejoicing or exultation. Its morphology and poetic settings vary, but the lexeme alone does not prove that its joy is more settled, intense, embodied, or enduring than joy expressed by H8055 or other Hebrew terms.
New Testament calls to rejoice in the Lord and hope in salvation share important canonical themes, while lament, tears, and sorrow remain part of faithful life. Greek joy vocabulary should be studied on its own terms rather than treated as a fixed lexical replacement for H7797.