B-Hebrew: The Biblical Hebrew Forum

Does the verb with the root letters sin mem het mean "to be happy" or "to rejoice" and is there a difference?

Kenneth Greifer wrote:Does the verb with the root letters sin mem het mean "to be happy" or "to rejoice" and is there a difference?

One way to answer that is to look at synonyms and see how they differ from ‎שמח to be joyful → שמח joyful, שמחה joy

אשר to have joyful contentment from doing the right thing,

גיל to be cheerful,

הלל to boast, as a form of praise either for self or for others Gn 12:15, Jd 16:24, Ps 150:6 (hit.) boasting about oneself sometimes taken as a sign of madness 1S 21:13, Jr 51:7,

חדה to be encouraged,

עלז to rejoice 2S 1:20, Zp 3:14, Pr 23:16,

עלס to make merry Pr 7:18, Jb 20:18, 39:13,

עלץ to exult, show or feel elation or jubilation, esp. as the result of a success 1S 2:1, Ps 25:2, Pr 11:10,

פצח (all but once followed with רנן meaning to break out with shouts of joy),

קלס to amuse in the sense of making fun of 2K2:23, Ez 22:5, Hb 1:10,

רנן to shout for joy

שבח to raise up ⇒ be raised up Pr 29:11, ⇒ make waves of the sea high Ps 89:10 (9) ⇒ to exult Ps 63:4 (3), 117:1, 145:4, 147:12, Ko 4:2, 8:15,

שוש, שיש to be glad

The reason to look at synonyms is, though they may be similar, almost never do they have exactly the same meaning, so that helps us to see where they differ, which helps us get a more exact understanding of the words. Can you think of other synonyms that could helps us better?

Karl W. Randolph.

It would also be helpful to look at all the places where the root occurs. For that, a lexicon and/or a concordance is helpful.

What lexicon do you use, Kenneth?

Hello

I don't know exactly what is the difference between "happy" and being "rejoiced".

But שמח is a verb that represents a state (not an act)
and according to my English, the word Happy is the right one

Whenever there can be a verse that tells the people to be happy as if it is asked for them to do something, It is only a way to say "make yourself happy"

I don't know if my comment is helpful or not, but I hope it is.

שמח is like צמח, a swell of good feeling.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

Kirk and everyone,
All of the dictionaries or lexicons (I don't know what the difference is) I have looked at say "to be glad" or "to rejoice" and maybe "to exult." I don't know if they just don't like to say "to be happy" or there is a difference between being happy and rejoicing. To me, rejoicing sounds like celebrating and not just the having the emotion of happiness.

Karl,
None of the words you listed are translated (by you) as "to be happy" for some reason. I know that there are quotes in the Hebrew Bible that are translated as "happy is the man who...", so there must be a word that some people translate as "happy."

Kenneth Greifer wrote:Karl,
None of the words you listed are translated (by you) as "to be happy" for some reason.

That’s because the word “happy” connotes a temporary, fleeting emotional high. When the emotional high is over, then it’s gone.

“Joy” and “joyful” are deeper responses that one can have even when one is not “happy”.

Kenneth Greifer wrote:I know that there are quotes in the Hebrew Bible that are translated as "happy is the man who...", so there must be a word that some people translate as "happy."

In Psalm 1 that word is אשרי. Yes, I mention that word too, or at least its verbal root, in my earlier response.

Karl W. Randolph.

Kenneth Greifer wrote:All of the dictionaries or lexicons... I have looked at...

Kirk asked you which lexicons (let's say "dictionaries") you have looked at. I think it's a good question. Just curious because it will affect what answers you get on words beyond the present question.

Jason and Kirk,

I looked at Brown-Driver-Briggs and Gesenius on the internet and in the printed book, The Compendious Hebrew-English Dictionary by Dvir Publishing.