This is a poetic verb for joy at full volume. It is not quiet contentment or a smile of satisfaction but the noisy, celebratory outburst of someone whose heart cannot hold it in. The everyday word for being glad (שָׂמַח) covers a wide range of good feeling; this word adds the note of triumph and jubilation, the shout that goes up when God has acted or a victory is won. It sits alongside other joy words like joy that whirls and trembles (גִּיל) and is a favorite of the Psalms, the prophets, and the songs of Israel.
The word's moral color comes entirely from who is exulting and over what, not from the verb itself. In the mouth of the faithful it is worship: rejoicing in the LORD, in his salvation, in what is right. On the lips of the wicked or an enemy the same shout becomes gloating, the ugly crowing of someone who triumphs over the fallen or revels in evil. Scripture uses the one word both ways and lets the setting supply the verdict, which is why the two senses below are shades of a single act rather than two different words.
Nuances
1ato exult, be jubilant: loud, celebratory rejoicing, especially in the LORD and his acts
Every verse that uses this word is poetry: a psalm, a proverb, or a prophet writing in verse. It never appears in a plain narrative report of what someone did, and it is never part of the wording of a law.Psa 96:12Pro 23:16Hab 3:18Jer 15:17
It is the word for a boastful celebration that a psalmist or prophet means to shut down. The wicked keep it up and are asked how long, a proud coastal city is told it will never do it again, Judah does it after doing evil, and Babylon is made drunk so that it does it one last time before sleeping forever.Psa 94:3Isa 23:12Jer 11:15Jer 51:39
In the psalms this celebration always has a voice. Singing or shouting stands right beside it in the same line, whether the one celebrating is a single worshipper, a crowd of the faithful, or a king dividing up the land he has won.Psa 28:7Psa 68:4Psa 149:5Psa 60:6
Both
Both words name the loud triumph of enemies over a defeated people, and one line can use them side by side for it. David does not want the Philistine women doing either over Saul's death, and Babylon is charged with doing both while plundering what belonged to the LORD.2Sa 1:20Jer 50:11
They overlap closely enough that a prophet can stack them in a single command for wholehearted public celebration, calling Jerusalem to do both with her whole heart.Zep 3:14
This is the joy the law commands. Israel is told to do it at the place God chooses, while eating what the harvest and the offerings provide, and the command spells out who has to be included: sons and daughters, male and female servants, the Levite, the foreigner living among them, the orphan, and the widow.Lev 23:40Deu 12:18Deu 16:11Deu 16:14Deu 26:11
It runs all through ordinary storytelling for the everyday gladness of someone who hears good news or sees a person he is happy to see: Aaron on meeting Moses, a father welcoming the man who came for his daughter, harvesters catching sight of the ark, a besieged town told that rescue comes tomorrow, a foreign king hearing Solomon's request.Exo 4:14Jdg 19:31Sa 6:131Sa 11:91Ki 5:7
The text can also name who or what produces the joy, so this word covers making someone else glad: wine cheers both gods and men, a newly married man is excused from the army for a year so he can gladden his wife, the LORD's instructions gladden the heart, and God himself gladdened the people at the dedication of the wall.Jdg 9:13Deu 24:5Psa 19:8Neh 12:43
גִּילrejoicing pictured as a whirl of strong emotion; this word stresses the celebratory shout of triumph rather than the inward stir.
Carries a triumphant, often gloating edge: the loud exulting of enemies and plunderers celebrating over the fallen.2Sa 1:20Jer 50:11
A more vivid, poetic word for high-pitched revelry and celebration, whether the drunken merriment God turns to ruin or a proud city's festivity that is silenced.Jer 51:39Isa 23:12
Both
Both name exuberant, outward rejoicing, and they stand together as near-twins for wholehearted joy in the LORD.Hab 3:18
Both can summon the world itself to celebrate, calling on the land and its fields to break out in joy.Psa 96:11Psa 96:12
The standard, wide word for glad rejoicing over what God has done, especially deliverance and salvation. It is the joy of the rescued and the people of God.Isa 25:9Psa 118:24Zec 9:9
Reaches beyond worship to ordinary human gladness, such as a parent's delight in a good child.Pro 23:24Pro 23:25
This is the prophets' word for the high spirits of a city or an empire, and it usually turns up in an announcement that the celebrating is about to stop: a port city told she will never celebrate again, plunderers whooping over the land they have stripped, Babylon made drunk so she can celebrate once more before a sleep she never wakes from. Its partner never appears in a prophetic book at all.Isa 23:12Jer 50:11Jer 51:39
It names celebration that the text reports as actually going on and condemns: God's own people cheerful in the middle of their wrongdoing, and the wicked celebrating unchecked while the psalmist asks how much longer this can last.Jer 11:15Psa 94:3
It can stand on its own as plain high spirits with no reason attached, a party atmosphere someone can join or refuse: the prophet says he never sat down with the merrymakers and joined in, and the enemy women are simply pictured whooping, with nothing named as the cause.Jer 15:172Sa 1:20
Both
They are close enough to swap places in the same line of the same song. The psalm calls on the open field to celebrate with one of these verbs, and when that song is sung again in the Chronicler's account the other verb stands in exactly that spot.Psa 96:121Ch 16:32
Both name joy poured out in God's presence, and one psalm uses them in back to back lines: the upright celebrate before God, and a moment later the singers are told to celebrate before him.Psa 68:3Psa 68:4
Either one can turn cruel, and in both cases it is a prayer that the celebration never happens: David begs that the enemy's women not get to cheer over Saul's death, and the psalmist asks that his enemies never get to cheer over him.2Sa 1:20Psa 25:2
Both are regularly paired with the ordinary word for being glad in the very same line, standing as the louder half of the pair.Zep 3:14Psa 9:2
It almost always says what the joy is about, and most often the answer is God himself: Hannah's heart celebrates in the LORD, everyone who loves God's name is told to celebrate in him, and the singer celebrates in God by name.1Sa 2:1Psa 5:11Psa 9:2
It is the word the wise sayings use to tie a whole town's public celebration to how honest people are faring: the city cheers when good people do well, and the community's splendor rises when the upright are on top.Pro 11:10Pro 28:12
Every one of its eight uses belongs to Israel's own worship and wisdom, a mother's prayer, temple songs, and two proverbs. It is never handed to a foreign nation or a conquering army as their celebration.1Sa 2:11Ch 16:32Psa 68:3
Carries a triumphant, boastful ring, the loud crowing that lets a beaten enemy be gloated over, which is why David forbids proclaiming Saul's death in Gath and why it names the swagger of nations plundering Israel.2Sa 1:20Jer 50:11Jer 51:39
Names the arrogant triumph of the wicked and the proud, the strutting the righteous protest with a cry of how long and that God will bring low.Psa 94:3Jer 11:15
Both
Both name the exultant gladness that answers God's saving work, the worshiper exulting in the very God of his salvation and rejoicing in the deliverance he brings.Hab 3:18Psa 28:7Psa 35:9Isa 61:10
Takes God himself as the one who rejoices, exulting over his own people the way a bridegroom rejoices over a bride and delighting to do them good.Zep 3:17Isa 62:5Deu 30:9
Delights specifically in God's word and commandments, treasuring them the way one rejoices over great spoil.Psa 119:14Psa 119:162
Puts joy in the mouth of the created world, so that the sun rejoices like a strong man to run its course and the wilderness and dry land are glad.Psa 19:5Isa 35:1
alaz in the other biblical languages
ἀγαλλιάωGreek“to rejoice”the main Greek verb for exultant rejoicing, often used where the Old Testament exults in the LORD.
καυχάομαιGreek“to boast”to boast or glory; catches the arrogant, self-congratulating side of exulting, the gloating over another.
What scholars say about alaz
A poetic verb for exultant, jubilant rejoicing, attested chiefly in the Psalms and the prophets. The standard lexica (BDB; HALOT; DCH) gloss it "exult, triumph, rejoice" and note that it is not marked for approval: it describes both the praise of the faithful and the boastful crowing of an enemy (2 Sam 1:20;Jer 50:11), with the evaluation supplied by context. It belongs to a dense field of Hebrew joy verbs (שׂמח, גיל, רנן, שׂושׂ) and to a set of phonetically close roots (עלץ, עלס) whose relationship is debated; the sense throughout is settled. The Septuagint most often renders it with ἀγαλλιάω, and the boastful nuance shades toward καυχάομαι.