One of our new favorite music videos is a 60’s song that uses the phrase “Hallelujah” perfectly, I think.
In the past few years I learned that I have been singing in Hebrew my whole life! How cool.
הללו יה ~ halelu-yah ~ Praise Jah
I saw many translations that make the phrase “Praise to Yah!” or “Praise You, Yah!” but at this point I am convinced it is merely “Praise Yah!”, not that there is any difference.
Jah, being a shortened poetic form of Jehovah that I guess David made up? (for some reason English Bible printers in the mid-17th century started using the letter “J” to spell God’s proper name.)
A Quote from Wikipedia says
“hallelujah” means more than simply “praise Jah” or “praise Yah”, as the word hallel in Hebrew means a joyous praise in song, to boast in God.” – George Fohrer. Hebrew and Aramaic Dictionary of the Old Testament, under הלל. Walter de Gruyter, 1973
Since King David started singing the phrase 3,000 years ago, it sure has become popular.
Who Will Answer?
Lei and I recently discovered a video of a song by Ed Ames that brings back memories of our childhood. We remember him as a odd indian named “Mingo” from Daniel Boone on TV. He was originally the star of the Ames brothers singing group and in 1968 his solo song “Who Will Answer?” reached #19 on Billboard’s Top 100.
The 1960’s
But we just love this video, whoever put it together did an wonderful job of illustrating the lyrics and the 1960’s:
Who Will Answer? – Check out the awesome lyrics below
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!, Hallelujah!
From the canyons of the mind,
We wander on and stumble blindly
Through the often-tangled maze
Of starless nights and sunless days,
While asking for some kind of clue
Or road to lead us to the truth,
But who will answer?
Side by side two people stand,
Together vowing, hand-in-hand
That love’s imbedded in their hearts,
But soon an empty feeling starts
To overwhelm their hollow lives,
And when they seek the hows and whys,
Who will answer?
On a strange and distant hill,
A young man’s lying very still.
His arms will never hold his child,
Because a bullet running wild
Has struck him down. And now we cry,
“Dear God, Oh, why, oh, why?”
But who will answer?
High upon a lonely ledge,
A figure teeters near the edge,
And jeering crowds collect below
To egg him on with, “Go, man, go!”
But who will ask what led him
To his private day of doom,
And who will answer?
[Chorus:]
If the soul is darkened
By a fear it cannot name,
If the mind is baffled
When the rules don’t fit the game,
Who will answer? Who will answer? Who will answer?
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!, Hallelujah!
In the rooms of dark and shades,
The scent of sandalwood pervades.
The colored thoughts in muddled heads
Reclining in the rumpled beds
Of unmade dreams that can’t come true,
And when we ask what we should do,
Who… Who will answer?
‘Neath the spreading mushroom tree,
The world revolves in apathy
As overhead, a row of specks
Roars on, drowned out by discotheques,
And if a secret button’s pressed
Because one man has been outguessed,
Who will answer?
Is our hope in walnut shells
Worn ’round the neck with temple bells,
Or deep within some cloistered walls
Where hooded figures pray in halls?
Or crumbled books on dusty shelves,
Or in our stars, or in ourselves,
Who will answer?
If the soul is darkened
By a fear it cannot name,
If the mind is baffled
When the rules don’t fit the game,
Who will answer? Who will answer? Who will answer?
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!, Hallelujah!
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