simcha · joy

What it means

simcha (שִׂמְחָה) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “joy”.

Gladness, celebration.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. Shared gladness, or the feast in which it is celebrated.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Joy, gladness; also the celebration in which it shows. It comes from שָׂמַח, “rejoice” (H8055).

• Joy at a feast or a journey 2 Samuel 6:12Genesis 31:27
• “To make great rejoicing”: to celebrate Nehemiah 8:12Esther 9:17
• The joy YHWH gives Psalms 16:11Psalms 51:8
• “Eternal gladness” Isaiah 35:10
• Joy as Ecclesiastes sees it Ecclesiastes 2:2

How we translate it

“Joy” 56 times, “gladness” 28, “rejoicing” 7. עָשָׂה שִׂמְחָה keeps the verb “make” (“to make great rejoicing”, Nehemiah 8:12), and יוֹם מִשְׁתֶּה וְשִׂמְחָה “a day of banqueting and gladness” (Esther 9:17). Other words of the same field, such as שָׂשׂוֹן, are rendered differently so that the reader sees which one the Hebrew says: next to it, שִׂמְחָה is “gladness” (“joy and gladness”, Isaiah 35:10).

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• joy ×56
• gladness ×28
• rejoicing ×7
• As you rejoiced ×1
• joys ×1
• rejoice ×1

Related words

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

• Genesis×1
• Numbers×1
• Deuteronomy×1
• Judges×1
• 1 Samuel×1
• 2 Samuel×1
• 1 Kings×1
• 1 Chronicles×6
• 2 Chronicles×6
• Ezra×3
• Nehemiah×6
• Esther×7
• Job×1
• Psalms×13
• Proverbs×8
• Ecclesiastes×8
• Song of Songs×1
• Isaiah×15
• Jeremiah×7
• Ezekiel×2
• Joel×1
• Jonah×1
• Zephaniah×1
• Zechariah×1

• Genesis 31:27

  Why did you secretly flee, deceive me, and not tell me? I would have sent you away with joy and with songs, with tambourine and with lyre.

• Numbers 10:10

  And on the day of your rejoicing, and at your appointed times, and at the beginnings of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; and they shall be for you a memorial before your Elohim. I am YHWH your Elohim.”

• Deuteronomy 28:47

  Because you did not serve YHWH your Elohim with joy and with gladness of heart for the abundance of everything,

• Judges 16:23

  Now the lords of the Philistines gathered to sacrifice a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to rejoice, and they said, “Our god has given into our hand Samson our enemy.”

• 1 Samuel 18:6

  And it came about, as they came, when David returned from striking the Philistine, that the women came out of all the cities of Israel to sing, with dances, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with joy, and with three-stringed instruments.

• 2 Samuel 6:12

  It was reported to King David, saying, “YHWH has blessed the house of Obed-edom and all that belongs to him, for the sake of the ark of Elohim.” So David went and brought up the ark of Elohim from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with joy.

• 1 Kings 1:40

  And all the people went up after him, and the people were playing on flutes and rejoicing with great joy, so that the earth split with their sound.

• 1 Chronicles 12:40

  And also those near to them, as far as Issachar and Zebulun and Naphtali, were bringing bread on donkeys and on camels and on mules and on cattle: food of flour, cakes of figs and cakes of raisins, and wine and oil, and cattle and sheep in abundance; for there was joy in Israel.

• 1 Chronicles 15:16

  David told the chiefs of the Levites to appoint their brothers, the singers, with instruments of song, harps and lyres and cymbals, making themselves heard, lifting up the voice with joy.

• 1 Chronicles 15:25

  So David and the elders of Israel and the commanders of the thousands went to bring up the ark of the covenant of YHWH from the house of Obed-edom with joy.

• 1 Chronicles 29:9

  The people rejoiced that they had offered willingly, for with a whole heart they had offered willingly to YHWH; and also David the king rejoiced with great joy.

• 1 Chronicles 29:17

  I know, my Elohim, that you test the heart and take pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of my heart I have offered willingly all these things; and now I have seen with joy your people who are present here offering willingly to you.

• 1 Chronicles 29:22

  They ate and drank before YHWH on that day with great joy. They made Solomon son of David king a second time, and anointed him for YHWH as leader, and Zadok as priest.

• 2 Chronicles 20:27

  All the men of Judah and Jerusalem returned, with Jehoshaphat at their head, to return to Jerusalem with joy, for YHWH had made them rejoice by delivering them from their enemies.

• 2 Chronicles 23:18

  Jehoiada put the offices of the house of YHWH in the hand of the priests, the Levites, whom David had divided over the house of YHWH, to offer the burnt offerings of YHWH, as it is written in the law of Moses, with joy and with song, under the direction of David.

• 2 Chronicles 29:30

  Hezekiah the king and the officials ordered the Levites to praise YHWH with the words of David and of Asaph the seer; and they praised with great joy, and they bowed and bowed down.

• 2 Chronicles 30:21

  The sons of Israel who were present in Jerusalem celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with great joy, and the Levites and the priests were praising YHWH day by day, with instruments of strength to YHWH.

• 2 Chronicles 30:23

  The whole assembly took counsel to celebrate another seven days, and they celebrated seven days with joy.

• 2 Chronicles 30:26

  There was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the days of Solomon son of David, king of Israel, there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem.

• Ezra 3:12

  But many of the priests and the Levites and the heads of the fathers’ houses, the elders who had seen the first house, when this house was founded before their eyes, were weeping with a loud voice, and many were raising their voice with shouting, with joy.

• Ezra 3:13

  And the people did not distinguish the sound of the shout of joy from the sound of the weeping of the people, for the people were shouting with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away.

• Ezra 6:22

  And they celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with joy, for YHWH had made them joyful and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of Elohim, the Elohim of Israel.

• Nehemiah 8:12

  And all the people went to eat and to drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that they had made known to them.

• Nehemiah 8:17

  And all the assembly, those who had returned from the captivity, made booths and lived in the booths; for the sons of Israel had not done so from the days of Jeshua son of Nun until that day. And there was very great rejoicing.

• Nehemiah 12:27

  And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought the Levites out of all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem to hold the dedication and rejoicing, with thanksgivings and with song, cymbals, harps, and with lyres.

• Nehemiah 12:43

  And they sacrificed on that day great sacrifices, and rejoiced, for Elohim had made them rejoice with great rejoicing; and also the women and the children rejoiced. And the rejoicing of Jerusalem was heard from afar.

• Nehemiah 12:44

  And on that day men were appointed over the chambers for the treasures, for the contributions, for the first part and for the tithes, to gather into them, from the fields of the cities, the portions of the law for the priests and for the Levites; for the rejoicing of Judah was over the priests and over the Levites who stood in their place.

• Esther 8:16

  For the Jews there was light and gladness, and joy and honor.

• Esther 8:17

  And in every province, and in every city, in the place where the word of the king and his law reached, there was gladness and joy for the Jews, a banquet and a good day; and many of the peoples of the land became Jews, for the dread of the Jews had fallen on them.

• Esther 9:17

  This was on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar; and they rested on the fourteenth of it, and made it a day of banqueting and gladness.

• Esther 9:18

  But the Jews who were in Susa assembled on the thirteenth of it and on the fourteenth of it, and rested on the fifteenth of it, and made it a day of banqueting and gladness.

• Esther 9:19

  Therefore the Jews of the open country, who live in the unwalled cities, make the fourteenth day of the month of Adar a day of gladness and banqueting and a good day, and of sending portions each to his companion.

• Esther 9:22

  as the days in which the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month that was turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a good day; that they should make them days of banqueting and gladness, and of sending portions each to his companion, and gifts to the needy.

• Job 20:5

  the shout of joy of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless is for a moment?

• Psalms 4:7

  You have put joy in my heart, more than when their grain and their new wine abound.

• Psalms 16:11

  You will make known to me the path of life; fullness of joys with your face; delights at your right hand forever.

• Psalms 21:6

  For you make him blessings forever; you gladden him with joy with your face.

• Psalms 30:11

  You have turned my mourning into dancing for me; you have loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness,

• Psalms 43:4

  And I will come to the altar of Elohim, to El, the gladness of my jubilation, and I will give you thanks with the lyre, Elohim, my Elohim.

• Psalms 45:15

  They are led with gladness and jubilation; they enter the palace of the king.

And 54 more times.