What Does Psalm 118:24 Mean?
This is the day the LORD makes; let us leap and be glad in it.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.THE KEY
The Hebrew makes joy a shared “let us” response to the day the LORD has already made.
THE MEANING
This day is already the LORD’s handiwork, and joy meets it now rather than waiting for a later day. The verse speaks in a communal voice: rejoicing and gladness are held together as a response to what is here.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a day must first be made worthy by human effort before joy can enter gives way: the verse names the LORD as the day’s maker and locates gladness within it.
THE ROOT
נָגִילָה
nagilah
GROWS FROM
גיל
to exult, rejoice
“leap” in this verse is nagilah. The form נָגִילָה (nagilah) carries a first-person plural “let us” force, so joy is shared intention as well as a future resolve. It stands beside a second, distinct root for gladness, opening the English pair into two expressions of joy.
ALSO GROWS
gîlû: rejoice; exult
גִּילוּ
This plural form makes the shared voice of the verse audible: joy is spoken together.
gîlāh: rejoicing; exultation
גִּילָה
The noun form shows that exultation is a condition named by the same root, not merely a passing verb.
וְנִשְׂמְחָה
venismechah
GROWS FROM
שמח
to rejoice, be glad
This is a different root from gil, so “be glad” is more than an English echo of “rejoice.” The same root forms words for a glad person and for joy itself, giving the day both exultation and gladness.
ALSO GROWS
sameach: glad; joyful
שָׂמֵחַ
This adjective shows the root describing a person marked by gladness.
simchah: joy; gladness
שִׂמְחָה
This noun names the joy that the verse pairs with exultation.
THE PATTERN
A day received as the LORD’s work becomes a place for joy that can be renewed across all days.
Fill us in the morning with your faithful love, and let us ring out and rejoice in all our days.They are new every morning; great is your steadiness.Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice.THE THREAD
Fill us in the morning with your faithful love, and let us ring out and rejoice in all our days.Psalm 90:14 shares the root שמח (samach), “to be glad,” with this verse. Here gladness belongs to this day; there the same root carries it through all our days.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us