Hallelujah is a Sentence

At the risk of sounding like a petulant child… well, a petulant child that complains about the frequent misuse of ancient Hebrew in weekly church services…. Which now that I think about it isn’t really childish at all…. Okay, so… at the risk of sounding like a scholarly snob, a priss, a snooty-turn-your-nose-up-at-everything prig, I would like to set the record straight on the use of the term “Hallelujah”[1]…. which is actually a Hebrew sentence. Okay, so Hebrew doesn’t mark sentences, only clauses, but that doesn’t mean that they did not think in complete thoughts… and “Hallelujah” is a complete thought. It has a subject, a verb and a direct object. Hallelujah is a sentence.

The subject of Hallelujah is the same subject one finds in every imperative sentence. Imperative sentences are sentences that command people to do things. In the sentences, “Lift the body from under the armpits.” “Bend its legs to fit it in the trunk.” “Dig deeper or the dogs will dig it up.” “Scrub harder to get the blood up,” each command has the same unstated subject, “You”—you lift… you bend… you dig… you scrub.

Now, in English this often leaves some doubt as to the full nature of the subject; who is being commanded? A woman? A man? A group of women? A group of men? A mixed group?  In Hebrew, however, every verb has a subject actually recorded in “embedded pronouns.” Every verb has a “he” or “she” or “we” or “they” or “you” woven into it. In fact, every verb also has pronoun spellings for number [single vs. group actors] and gender [male vs. female actors]. There is a different spelling for:

• They [males or mixed group]
• They [female group]
• You [single male]
• You [group of males or mixed group]
• You [single female]
• You [group of females]

So, in our sentence “Hallelujah,” we know exactly who is being commanded. The subject of Hallelujah is “You [group of men or mixed group],” what most Texans, like my mamma, will agree should be translated, “Y’all.”

So what exactly are Y’all supposed to do when shouting “Hallelujah”? The actual verb comes from the Hebrew root,[2] HLL, which is associated in one way or another with the notion of “praise.” Hallelu, the subject-verb part of the sentence, found most often in the psalms, means “Y’all praise!!!

“Hallelu” is then followed with “Jah.”

Quick sidebar: Dear worship leaders and pastors, please stop getting your church to give audience response chants with the sentence Hallelujah broken improperly. Don’t yell, “Halle!” while holding your ear out to the congregation who is supposed to yell back, “lujah!” They may not know the difference, but that is a problem in itself. Why are we chanting things we don’t actually understand? So, next time, try this. Hold your ear out to the audience and yell, “Hallelu!” Then the audience can yell back, “Jah!” Not only will you be more accurate, and less irritating (to me, if to no one else), but you will also have a teaching moment where you can explain the chant properly.

Okay, let’s recap. We’ve covered the subject “Y’all,” and the verb [a command to praise]. The last bit is the direct object… the thing or one we are commanded to praise. The psalmists command the people to praise “Jah.”

So what or who is Jah? Jah is a poetic version of YHWH, the covenant name of the God of Israel, the God of the Bible, the maker of all things. You will find “Jah,” or utterances like it, connected to a lot of things. Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel for instance has a last name that means “a gift of YHWH.” The name Elijah means “My God is YHWH.” El (god) i (my) jah (YHWH). Jonathan means “YHWH has given,” working with an even shorter version of YHWH—“Ya.”

So, when we consider popular worship lyrics, like

And all the heavens shout Your praise,
Beautiful is our God, the universe will sing
Hallelujah to You our King
Hallelujah to You our King
Hallelujah to You our King
Hallelujah Lord [3]

we should be left wondering, “What does this even mean?” To say, “praise YHWH to You our King is nonsense.” Is the universe going to sing, “Praise YHWH,” at our king? And what are we to make of the last line? Are we actually commanding the Lord to praise YHWH? The Lord IS YHWH. Divine supremacy aside, that’s kind of weird.