Śāśôn names joy or gladness, but its spiritual evaluation depends on what prompts it and how it responds to God's word. Psalm 51:12 asks for the joy of salvation to be restored within confession and a plea for a clean heart.
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.
Reader summary
Full entry for שָׂשׂוֹן (H8342) · Open the biblical lexicon
Śāśôn names joy or gladness, but its spiritual evaluation depends on what prompts it and how it responds to God's word. Psalm 51:12 asks for the joy of salvation to be restored within confession and a plea for a clean heart.
The BSB source-word alignment has 22 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include of joy (7), joy (3), Gladness (2), the joy (2), and gladness (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Esther 8:16. Its strongest book concentrations include Jeremiah (7), Isaiah (6), Psalms (5), Esther (2).
Śāśôn names joy or gladness, but its spiritual evaluation depends on what prompts it and how it responds to God's word. Psalm 51:12 asks for the joy of salvation to be restored within confession and a plea for a clean heart. Psalm 119:111 locates the heart's joy in God's testimonies, while Isaiah 35:10 promises enduring gladness for the redeemed returning to Zion. Those contexts direct joy toward received salvation and faithful instruction.
Isaiah 22:13 provides a contrasting use: feasting and gladness answer a call to weeping with defiant enjoyment. The noun itself therefore does not certify that a celebration is faithful. Teaching should distinguish restored joy, delight in God's word and evasive pleasure rather than demand one visible emotional style. The psalmist may ask for joy precisely because it is not presently felt, and the restoration promise must not become a rebuke to mourners who still wait for its fulfillment.
Restored salvation joy, treasured testimonies, promised redemption gladness and defiant feasting supply different moral contexts. The noun names joy while its object and response to God's word determine whether the passage commends or condemns its expression.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit.
The request for restored salvation joy follows confession and a plea for renewed heart and spirit. Its petition form leaves room for joy to be sought rather than already displayed.
Your testimonies are my heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart.
The testimonies are received as lasting heritage and heart joy while the surrounding verses remember danger. Delight in instruction does not require the absence of all pressure.
So the redeemed of the Lord will return and enter Zion with singing, crowned with everlasting joy. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee.
Enduring gladness accompanies the redeemed return to Zion, with sorrow fleeing. The promised setting should remain visible instead of demanding immediate emotional fulfillment from every reader.
But look, there is joy and gladness, butchering of cattle and slaughtering of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”
Glad feasting replaces the weeping to which the Lord called the people. The context evaluates the response as defiant, so cheerful activity cannot be automatically classified as holy.
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. Exuberant joy expressing delight; often marks divine favor or festive celebration in communal contexts
Exuberant joy expressing delight; often marks divine favor or festive celebration in communal contexts
cheerfulness; specifically, welcome BDB: exultation Usage: gladness, joy, mirth, rejoicing.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 22 lexical occurrence verses.
שָׂשׂוֹן is built from this root:
Captures the emotional culmination of redemption.Isaiah 35:1-10
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Psalm 51 seeks joy within an honest confession rather than displaying gladness to conceal wrongdoing. The request accompanies renewal and a willing spirit, giving joy a received and responsive character. Psalm 119 places delight in testimonies beside remembered danger, so joy is not defined as a life in which nothing painful happens.
Isaiah 22's feast supplies the opposite moral direction. The people respond to a call for mourning with a slogan of present consumption, and the prophet does not commend that gladness. Isaiah 35 then promises enduring joy within redemption's return. John 15:9-11 connects Jesus' joy with remaining in His love and keeping His commands. These witnesses help teaching honor joy's object and timing rather than praise emotion in isolation, shame a grieving reader or mistake evasive celebration for spiritual health.
Ps.51.12
Joy and gladness describe an emotion or celebration without determining its moral quality. A prayer request, promised restoration and condemned feast use the same identity in different relationships to God, His instruction and the situation being faced.
John 15:9-11 speaks of Jesus' joy and completed joy in those who remain in His love and keep His commands. It supports a Christian comparison in which joy has a stated relationship and response. It does not make every Hebrew gladness occurrence holy or prohibit truthful sorrow while restoration is awaited.