Blithesomeness or glee , (religious or festival)
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שִׂמְחָה (śimḥāh) is a Hebrew noun for joy, gladness, mirth, or rejoicing. It can name worship and festival celebration, delight in God's word or presence, restored communal life, family and royal festivities, harvest gladness, military celebration, revelry, or joy tied to morally troubling events.
Reader summary
Full entry for שִׂמְחָה (H8057) · Open the biblical lexicon
שִׂמְחָה (śimḥāh) is a Hebrew noun for joy, gladness, mirth, or rejoicing. It can name worship and festival celebration, delight in God's word or presence, restored communal life, family and royal festivities, harvest gladness, military celebration, revelry, or joy tied to morally troubling events.
The BSB source-word alignment has 94 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include with joy (13), joy (12), and gladness (8), and joy (7), . . . (3).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 31:27. Its strongest book concentrations include Isaiah (15), Psalms (13), Ecclesiastes (8), Proverbs (8).
שִׂמְחָה (śimḥāh) is a Hebrew noun for joy, gladness, mirth, or rejoicing. It can name worship and festival celebration, delight in God's word or presence, restored communal life, family and royal festivities, harvest gladness, military celebration, revelry, or joy tied to morally troubling events. Genre and occasion decide whether the gladness is commended, limited, or condemned. The noun does not require loudness, public expression, duration, or a particular emotional intensity in every occurrence.
Psalm 16 locates fullness of joy in God's presence, Isaiah 35 pictures everlasting joy overtaking the redeemed, and Zephaniah 3:17 portrays God rejoicing over restored Zion with gladness. Other texts complicate the picture. Isaiah 22 condemns feasting that ignores approaching judgment, Job says the godless person's joy is brief, Proverbs observes that even in laughter a heart may ache, and Psalm 137 records captors demanding songs of joy from exiles. Joy language can therefore comfort, celebrate, expose denial, or reveal coercion.
Nehemiah 8:10 does not contain H8057 in the phrase 'the joy of the Lord is your strength'; that verse uses H2304. H8057 appears in verses 12 and 17 for the people's great rejoicing after understanding the instruction and celebrating the feast. The wider context remains valuable, but exact lexical claims must distinguish the nouns.
H8057 appears in worship, feasts, restoration promises, family and public celebrations, wisdom, revelry, forced entertainment, loss of joy, and divine gladness over a restored people.
Jerusalem responds to a day calling for mourning with feasting and a fatalistic slogan, so joy and revelry become signs of refusal.
The redeemed return to Zion with everlasting joy as sorrow and sighing flee in a restoration vision.
God is present to save and rejoices over restored Zion with gladness; H8057 supplies the noun while H7797 supplies the rejoicing verb.
Zophar says the joy of the godless is brief, within a speech whose claims must be evaluated in the whole book of Job.
The psalmist speaks of fullness of joy in God's presence and pleasures at God's right hand.
Babylonian captors demand songs and joy from exiles, exposing coerced performance in a setting of displacement and grief.
The proverb observes that a heart may ache even in laughter and that joy may end in grief.
Philistine leaders gather for sacrifice and rejoicing after Samson's capture, a celebration within domination and impending catastrophe.
At the second temple foundation, loud joy and loud weeping mingle so completely that listeners cannot distinguish them.
The people depart to eat, share portions, and make great rejoicing because they understood the words made known to them.
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.
Hebrew word. blithesomeness or glee , (religious or festival)
blithesomeness or glee, (religious or festival) BDB: joy Usage: × exceeding(-ly), gladness, joy(-fulness), mirth, pleasure, rejoice(-ing).
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
שִׂמְחָה is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H8057 gives teachers language for joy that is rich enough to include feast, worship, restoration, presence, family celebration, revelry, and coercion. It does not support a rule that biblical joy is always loud, outward, stable, or detached from circumstances. Ezra 3 lets joy and weeping rise together; Proverbs says laughter can coexist with an aching heart; Psalm 137 exposes oppressors who demand entertainment from grieving exiles.
These texts protect people from emotional performance. Communities can cultivate gladness through shared meals, generosity, truthful worship, remembrance, and hope while allowing people to grieve or remain quiet. Zephaniah 3:17 can assure restored Zion of God's delight without becoming a universal promise of immediate emotional relief. Where depression, trauma, grief, or suicidal language is present, compassionate presence, safety assessment, and qualified care matter more than pressure to rejoice.
Ps.16.11
H8057 is the noun joy, gladness, or rejoicing, related to the verb H8055. It can occur alongside other joy terms for poetic or rhetorical effect. H2304, not H8057, is the noun used in Nehemiah 8:10's 'joy of the Lord' phrase.