renanah

BDB glosses רְנָנָה in all four attestations as joy or exultation: absolute of joy in Job 3:7 and Psalm 100:2 (the latter parallel to שִׂמְחָה), plural in שִׂפְתֵי רְנָנוֹת at Psalm 63:6 Hebrew (63:5 English), and construct in רִנְנַת רְשָׁעִים at Job 20:5 (again parallel to שִׂמְחָה). The lexicographic tradition (BDB, Gesenius, Klein) defines the underlying root רנן acoustically, as a shrill, ringing, far-carrying cry, probably onomatopoeic, comparing Arabic ranna "to ring, resound", used also of the twang of a bowstring, and lets context supply the affective value; the same root carries a cry of distress at Lamentations 2:19, while the sense "murmur, complain" is a post-biblical development in Mishnaic Hebrew and Jewish Aramaic rather than a biblical meaning. The theological lexicons (Ficker in TLOT; the TDOT article on רנן) foreground instead the jubilation specialization that dominates the Psalter and the imperatives of Isaiah 40 to 66. Anderson's study of joy and mourning as ritual states, and Westermann's work on praise, explain why the noun clusters in worship settings: festal song is one of the prescribed acts of joy, which is also why its absence functions as a curse in Job 3:7. The ancient versions register the range without settling it: the Septuagint uses εὐφροσύνη and χαρμονή in Job but ἀγαλλίασις in the Psalms, and the Vulgate alternates between laus and exsultatio. The related plural רְנָנִים at Job 39:13 is a hapax generally identified as the ostrich, plausibly named for its shrill nocturnal cry, though that derivation cannot be proved. HALOT and DCH were not consulted directly on whether they split רנן into numbered homonyms, so the single-root judgment above rests on BDB, Gesenius and Klein.