שָׂמַח
to rejoice
‘to rejoice’ is one of 3 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Qal verb in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
- Preposition
- A relational word (e.g. “in,” “to,” “from”) governing a noun.
Stem
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”). Here: ‘in common life’
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem.
- Hiphil
- The causative active stem (“he caused / brought about”).
Form
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- Sequential Perfect
- A perfect with prefixed waw continuing a preceding imperfect or command (waw-consecutive perfect).
- Cohortative
- A first-person volitional form expressing wish or resolve (“let me / let us write”).
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Imperative
- A direct command (“write!”).
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
- Jussive
- A third- or second-person volitional form expressing wish or command (“let him write”).
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
- Infinitive Absolute
- An unbound verbal noun, often intensifying or standing in for a finite verb.
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
9 verses where H8055 appears in the Qal stem in the Book of Deuteronomy. Filtered view — show all forms. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Deuteronomy
- Deuteronomy 12:7 וּ/שְׂמַחְתֶּ֗ם conj + Qal wpf 2mp and there you shall eat before Yahweh your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households, in which Yahweh your God has blessed you.
- Deuteronomy 12:12 וּ/שְׂמַחְתֶּ֗ם conj + Qal wpf 2mp You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God, you, and your sons, and your daughters, and your men-servants, and your maid-servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you.
- Deuteronomy 12:18 וְ/שָׂמַחְתָּ֗ conj + Qal wpf 2ms but you shall eat them before Yahweh your God in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your man-servant, and your maid-servant, and the Levite who is within your gates: and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God in all that you put your hand to.
- Deuteronomy 14:26 וְ/שָׂמַחְתָּ֖ conj + Qal wpf 2ms and you shall bestow the money for whatever your soul desires, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatever your soul asks of you; and you shall eat there before Yahweh your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household.
- Deuteronomy 16:11 וְ/שָׂמַחְתָּ֞ conj + Qal wpf 2ms and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your man-servant, and your maid-servant, and the Levite who is within your gates, and the foreigner, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are in the midst of you, in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there.
- Deuteronomy 16:14 וְ/שָׂמַחְתָּ֖ conj + Qal wpf 2ms and you shall rejoice in your feast, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your man-servant, and your maid-servant, and the Levite, and the foreigner, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your gates.
- Deuteronomy 26:11 וְ/שָׂמַחְתָּ֣ conj + Qal wpf 2ms and you shall rejoice in all the good which Yahweh your God has given to you, and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the foreigner who is in the midst of you.
- Deuteronomy 27:7 וְ/שָׂ֣מַחְתָּ֔ conj + Qal wpf 2ms and you shall sacrifice peace-offerings, and shall eat there; and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God.
- Deuteronomy 33:18 שְׂמַ֥ח Qal impv 2ms Of Zebulun he said, Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out; Issachar, in your tents.
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
“to rejoice” is the headline sense of the Hebrew verb שמח (sâmach). First canonically at Exodus 4:14, it enters the text early. With 148 verses in 31 books, it is a common word in the Hebrew Bible. It concentrates in Psalms, which alone accounts for 35% of its uses. Read the stem: it spans 3 stems, including Qal and Piel. The sections below give every sense, occurrence, and version rendering.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H8055 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 148
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 148 distinct verses.
- 31 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 31 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #290
- by frequency
- Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 290 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 148 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Psalms 52 verses 35%
- Proverbs 16 verses 11%
- Deuteronomy 10 verses 7%
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 148 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 96 verses · 65%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 40 verses · 27%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 12 verses · 8%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Rejoice 39×, Be glad 14×, Rejoiced 13×
- American Standard Version: Rejoice 32×, Be glad 14×, Rejoiced 13×
- Berean Standard Bible: Rejoice 33×, Be glad 18×, Rejoiced 13×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Rejoice 44×, Rejoiced 14×, Be glad 13×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H8055 across 152 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 48 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H8055 across 151 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 52 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H8055 across 152 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 41 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 3 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H8055 across 186 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 39 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
8 senses and sub-senses in the full BDB
Hebrew verbs can shift meaning by stem (binyan): Qal is the basic action, Niphal is often passive or reflexive, Piel often intensifies or makes it factitive, and Hiphil is typically causative. The senses below are grouped under the stem BDB assigns to each.
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 8 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
Qal
- Pf. 3 ms. שָׂמַח ψ 16:9 +; וְשָׂמֵ֑חַ consec. Pr 29:6; 3 fs. שָׂמֵ֑חָה Est 8:15; 2 ms. וְשָׂמַחְתָּ֫ Dt 12:18 +; 3 mpl. שָׂמֵ֑חוּ Ne 12:43, etc.; Impf. יִשְׂמַח Is 9:16 +, 3 mpl. יִשְׂמָ֑חוּ 65:13 ψ 69:33, 3 fpl. תִּשְׂמַחְנָה 2 S 1:20, etc.; Imv. ms. שְׂמַח Dt 33:18 +, fs. שִׂמְחִי Zp 3:14 +, שְׂמָ֑חִי Jo 2:21, etc.; Inf. cstr. שְׂמֹחַ Ez 35:14 +, etc.; Pt. v. שָׂמֵחַ adj.;—24 times ‖ גיל, less often ‖ רָנַן, עָלַז, שִׂישׂ, etc.;— e.g. Psalms 16:9
- 1. in common life:
- a. rejoice, c. ב pers. vel rei take pleasure in Ju 9:19(×2); Dt 33:18; Ec 3:22 + 7 times + (prob.) בְּכָל־יָמֵינוּ ψ 90:14 (others ב temp.), cf. Ec 11:8; עַל pers. Is 39:2 + ‖ 2 K 20:13 (וישׂמח for MT וישׁמע Vrss mod.), עַל rei Jon 4:6; 2 Ch 15:15; c. cl. temp. Je 41:13 + 6 times + (of heart) Pr 23:15, in one’s heart Ex 4:14 (J); c. כִּי because Is 14:29 + 3 times; c. אֵת with Is 66:10; c. מִן pers. get pleasure from Pr 5:18; abs. 1 S 11:9; Ec 3:12; Pr 13:9 (fig. of prosperity; subj. אוֹר; opp. דָּעַךְ), + 8 times; c. ל rei at Jb 21:12. e.g. Judges 9:19
- b. rejoice arrogantly, exult at, ל pers., Mi 7:8; Is 14:8; Ob 12 ψ 35:19, 24; 38:17, c. אֶל־ rei Ez 25:6, ב rei Jb 31:29 ψ 35:15; Pr 24:17; abs. Ho 9:1 (+ אֶל־גִּיל), 2 S 1:20 + 3 times, + (said of righteous by Eliphaz) Jb 22:19. e.g. Micah 7:8
- 2.
- a. rejoice religiously, c. ב rei 1 S 2:1; Dt 12:7 ψ 21:2 + 7 times; c. בי׳, etc., Jo 2:23 ψ 32:11 + 10 times ψψ + 9:3 (+ אֶעֶלְצָה בָ֑ךְ); c. עַל rei 2 Ch 29:36, עַל inf. 1 Ch 29:9 a; c. לְמַעַן rei ψ 48:12; c. כִּי because 119:74; abs. Zc 2:14; 4:10; Jo 2:21; 1 Ch 29:9 b (c. acc. cogn.), 16:31 (of heavens) = ψ 96:11, ψ 97:1 (isles) + 18 times (12 times ψψ), + (of heart) Zc 10:7a ψ 16:9; 1 Ch 16:10, בְּכָל־לֵב Zp 3:14 (cf. Ex 4:14 1 a supr.); c. לִפְנֵי י׳ Is 9:2 and (of joyous feasting etc., at sanctuary) Lv 23:40 (H), Dt 12:12, 18; 16:11; 27:7, cf. 14:26; 1 S 11:15. e.g. 1 Samuel 2:1
- b. subj. י׳, c. עַל pers. Is 9:16 (‖ רחם; PerlesRÉJ xxxv. 63 be gentle, Arabic سَمُحَ), ב rei ψ 104:31. e.g. Isaiah 9:16
Piel
- Pf. 3 ms. וְשִׂמַּח consec. Dt 24:5, sf. שִׂמְּחָהוּ Je 20:15, etc.; Impf. 3 ms. יְשַׂמַּח ψ 104:15 +, etc.; Imv. ms. שַׂמֵּחַ ψ 86:4, שַׂמַּח Pr 27:11, etc.; Inf. abs. שַׂמֵּחַ Je 20:15; Pt. מְשַׂמֵּחַ Ju 9:13, pl. cstr. מְשַׂמְּחֵי ψ 19:9;—cause to rejoice, gladden, c. acc. pers. (or equiv.), subj. pers. Dt 24:5; Je 20:15 (+ Inf. abs.), Pr 10:1; 15:20; 27:11; 29:3 (Ho 7:3 v. משׁח 2); especially subj. י׳ (God) Je 31:13 (c. מִן separ.) Is 56:7; 2 Ch 20:27 (c. מִן of source, v. Qal 1 a), Ezr 6:22; Ne 12:43 (+ acc. cogn.) ψ 86:4; 90:15; 92:5 (ב instr.), also, c. ל pers. cause to exult at ψ 30:2, id. c. עַל pers. La 2:17; subj. rei Ju 9:13 ψ 19:9; 45:9; 46:5; 104:15; Ec 10:19; Pr 12:25; 15:30; 27:9. e.g. Deuteronomy 24:5
Hiphil
- = Pi. Pf. 2 ms. הִשְׂמַחְתָּ ψ 89:43 (subj. י׳). e.g. Psalms 89:43
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
vb. rejoice, be glad (NH id.; cf. perhaps Assyrian šamâḫu, flourish, Arabic شَمَخَ be high, proud; Pun. n.pr. f. שמחת);—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Origin: a primitive root
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
שָׂמַח
- (b. h.) to be merry, rejoice. Meg. 13ᵇ ש׳ שמחה גדולה he rejoiced exceedingly. M. Kat. 18ᵇ ראה … וש׳ he saw others do wrong and rejoiced over it; a. fr.
- to make glad, cheer. B. Bath. 10ᵇ יְשַׂמֵּחַ את אשתו בדבר מצוה Ms. M. (v. Rabb. D. S. a. l.) let him make his wife cheerful by means of a good deed. R. Hash. 6ᵇ אשה בעלה מְשַׂמְּחָהּ as to a woman’s festive joy, her husband must rejoice her (with dresses &c.); Kidd. 34ᵇ. Pes. 109ᵃ חייב אדם לְשַׂמֵּחַ וכ׳ man is bound to gladden his children and the members of his household on the festival; במה מְשַׂמְּחָם wherewith should he gladden them? Keth. 8ᵃ (in marriage benedictions) מְשַׂמֵּחַ ציון בבניה who gladdens Zion through (restoring to her) her children; משמח חתן וכלה who gladdens bridegroom and bride; מש׳ חתן עם הכלה who gladdens the bridegroom with the bride; שַׂמֵּח תְּשַׂמַּח … כשַׂמֵּחֲךָ וכ׳ mayest thou gladden the beloved friends, as thou didst gladden thy creature (Adam) &c.; a. fr.
שָׂמֵחַ
- preced.) bright, joyful, joyous. Kidd. 66ᵃ היה ש׳ שמחה וכ׳ he rejoiced greatly (prepared a great festival), and invited &c. Ber. 5ᵃ, v. עָצֵב. Ib. 9ᵇ אדם … וש׳ במצות he is a great man and glad when he can do good. Meg. 10ᵇ אין הקב"ה ש׳ וכ׳ the Lord does not rejoice over the downfall of the wicked; a. v. fr.—Pl. שְׂמֵחִים, שְׂמֵחִין, שְׂמֵי׳. Sabb. 145ᵇ, v. מוֹעֵד. Yoma 21ᵇ עניים ש׳ … עצבין the poor are glad (because provisions will be cheap), and the property owners are sorry; B. Bath. 147ᵃ. Cant. R. to I, 10; Y. Ḥag. II, 77ᵇ bot. והיו הדברים ש׳ וכ׳ and the words (of the Law which they quoted at the festive board) were as bright as when they were delivered from Sinai; a. fr.—Fem. שְׂמֵחָה, שְׂמֵי׳. Pesik. R. s. 20 כשנתן … ארץ ש׳ ושמים בוכין when the Lord gave Israel the Law, the earth was glad, and the heavens wept; a. fr.—Pl. שְׂמֵחוֹת, שְׂמֵי׳. Pesik. R. s. 21 בפנים ש׳ with a cheerful contenance; a. e.
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 123 distinct written forms H8055 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that stem’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
The 60 most common forms are shown; 63 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H8055, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derived from this word
Compare all same-root words → They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 132 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 148 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
- Exodus 4:14
- Leviticus 23:40
- Deuteronomy 12:7
- Judges 9:13
- 1 Samuel 2:1
- 2 Samuel 1:20
- 2 Kings 11:20
- 1 Chronicles 16:10
- 2 Chronicles 6:41
- Ezra 6:22
- Esther 8:15
- Job 3:22
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
