Probably to brighten up, i.e. (figuratively) be (causatively, make) blithe or gleesome
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שָׂמַח (śāmaḥ) is a Hebrew verb for rejoicing, being glad, delighting, or making glad. It appears in family recognition, festival celebration, shared meals, worship, harvest, marriage, victory, restoration, wisdom, and hope.
Reader summary
Full entry for שָׂמַח (H8055) · Open the biblical lexicon
שָׂמַח (śāmaḥ) is a Hebrew verb for rejoicing, being glad, delighting, or making glad. It appears in family recognition, festival celebration, shared meals, worship, harvest, marriage, victory, restoration, wisdom, and hope.
The BSB source-word alignment has 155 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include Rejoice (21), be glad (10), rejoiced (10), and rejoice (9), and be glad (8).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Exodus 4:14. Its strongest book concentrations include Psalms (52), Proverbs (17), Deuteronomy (10), Isaiah (9).
שָׂמַח (śāmaḥ) is a Hebrew verb for rejoicing, being glad, delighting, or making glad. It appears in family recognition, festival celebration, shared meals, worship, harvest, marriage, victory, restoration, wisdom, and hope. It can also describe gladness at an enemy's fall, exploitative success, lies, violence, or another people's disaster. The verb names joy; subject, object, occasion, and context determine whether that joy is commended, corrected, or condemned.
Deuteronomy repeatedly calls households, Levites, servants, immigrants, orphans, and widows to rejoice together before the Lord. That communal setting links celebration with provision and inclusion rather than a private emotional test. Psalms invite gladness in God, salvation, creation, and a day God has made, while Proverbs can commend relational delight and forbid rejoicing when an enemy falls. The canon evaluates joy by its ground and fruit.
Zephaniah 3:17 should not be cited as a direct H8055 occurrence. The verse uses H7797 for God's rejoicing and H8057 for gladness; H8055 appears in Zephaniah 3:14, where Zion is called to rejoice. This distinction preserves the related words without collapsing them. Calls to rejoice must also remain alongside lament and must not shame people living with grief, trauma, depression, or danger.
H8055 occurs in commanded and spontaneous joy, inclusive festival celebration, family and marital delight, worship, restoration, creation, hostile joy, and morally distorted celebration.
Households eat before the Lord and rejoice in the work blessed by God within instructions for worship in the chosen place.
Festival joy explicitly includes family, servants, Levites, immigrants, orphans, and widows at the place God chooses.
Edom is addressed as rejoicing over Zion's ruin, but the poem announces that judgment will also reach Edom.
The violent conqueror gathers people like fish and rejoices over successful capture, an image that condemns predatory power.
The prayer asks God to make the people glad for as many days as they have been afflicted, holding joy and suffering together.
The creation hymn asks that the Lord rejoice in his works.
The worshiping community resolves to rejoice and be glad in the day the Lord has made.
Wisdom instruction calls a husband to rejoice in the wife of his youth within a warning against adultery.
The reader is forbidden to rejoice when an enemy falls, directly constraining hostile joy.
At Jerusalem's wall dedication, the people offer sacrifices and rejoice so greatly that the celebration is heard far away.
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. Joy rooted in brightening—moves from physical illumination to emotional gladness, often involving celebration and festive delight.
Joy rooted in brightening—moves from physical illumination to emotional gladness, often involving celebration and festive delight.
probably to brighten up, i.e. (figuratively) be (causatively, make) blithe or gleesome BDB: rejoice Usage: cheer up, be (make) glad, (have, make) joy(-ful), be (make) merry, (cause to, make to) rejoice, × very.
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 158 lexical occurrence verses.
שָׂמַח is a primitive root - no further derivation.
The passage highlights that marriage is intended to be a joyful and satisfying relationship. Hosea 9:1-6
The joy heard far away testifies that God Himself granted gladness to His restored people. Nehemiah 12:27-43
Joy detached from covenant fidelity is condemned. Proverbs 5:15-23
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H8055 helps teachers ask who rejoices, why, with whom, and at whose cost. Deuteronomy's festival texts make gladness communal and materially inclusive, while Proverbs forbids delight in an enemy's fall and prophets expose celebration rooted in conquest or disaster. Psalms can call for joy and still preserve lament, even asking for gladness proportionate to long affliction.
This range prevents joy from becoming a personality test or a demanded performance. Communities may celebrate God's gifts without shaming people who are grieving, depressed, traumatized, chronically ill, or unsafe. They should also notice who cannot participate because of poverty, exclusion, disability, or unresolved harm. Joy grounded in worship can coexist with tears and advocacy.
A leader must not use commands to rejoice to silence lament, conceal abuse, demand visible enthusiasm, or judge a person's faith from facial expression or temperament.
Deut.12.7
H8055 is a verb for rejoicing, being glad, delighting, or making glad. H8057 is its related noun, while H7797 is another verb in the joy domain. Related words may occur together, but they retain distinct identities and occurrence inventories.
New Testament commands and narratives of rejoicing extend the canonical theme through Greek joy vocabulary. The connection is thematic and translational rather than a one-to-one identity. Grief, lament, and joy continue to coexist in faithful Christian life.
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