Leonard Cohen: Hallelujah Meaning
Song Released: 1984
Covered By: Rufus Wainwright (2007), Jordan Smith (2015), Pentatonix (2016)
Hallelujah Lyrics
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Well there have been quite a few iconic figures in the Bible. David was not only a formidable warrior but a talented musician. He is not known, however for losing his strength by having his hair cut off. that was Samson. Either case equally represent individuals pre-selected by the God of Abraham. David was to be the unlikely King of Isreal after Saul and Samson was a Nazarite, a status and destiny bestowed on him by his mother. I really think this song is about the relationship both had with the Lord. I think it is a love song, not romantic to be sure, but a love song the Lord is singing to some of his most cherished children. Both had left their first love, the Lord for something far less valuable and only seemingly desirable.
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It's not only about David, but about Gideon too (your faith was strong, but you needed proof) and about Simson, Delilah tied him to a kitchen chair and cut his hair, thus breaking his throne. It actually has different layers.
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C'mon guys...can it really be that no one has noticed that the song is about David and Batsheva? Our admiration for Leonard Cohen should not go to our head to the extent of making him such a philosopher...a great poet, a great singer, an interesting man, yes.
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Quite simply, I believe it's about God's ever-presence in all things, good and bad, joy and pain.
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the two Hebrew words read right to left and pronounced, as Halalu Yah and translated as “Praise God” an imperative verb, are a command to exhort the name of God. Examples of the use of this form of the New Testament “Hallelujah” is to be found in Ps 149.1,9 and Ps 150.1,6. In the New Testament Christians are taught to exhort, praise, and thank God for all things both pleasurable and painful in their lives. It seems to me that interpretations that Cohen’s Hallelujah is doing just that are the correct interpretations.
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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To: Anonymous September 3, 2016 9:49 pm
W0W! Shut MY mouth... I'm not even gonna try after THAT... -
No doubt, this is a beautiful song. It's like a tonic and has an almost sedative like effect on me any time I listen to it. The gentle, beautiful melody and religious references make it seem almost harmless. The genius of this song is that there are so many darker elements of love hiding in plain sight right there in the lyrics.
"Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you"
Any interpretations I've read on these lines miss what's staring them straight in the face. "Your faith was strong but you needed proof" this line seems obvious enough to me. He'd noticed her and was struck by her beauty but he wanted to see more...he needed proof. "You saw her bathing on the roof" You automatically assume she was sunbathing on the roof BUT "Her beauty and the MOONLIGHT overthrew you". She can't have been sunbathing in the moonlight, can she. She was having a bath, he was on the roof, at night, spying on her.
If I wasn't so drunk I'd go through some of the other verses but when you listen/read them think of a horny young man who tries to seduce a girl who seems naive and inexperienced but on into the relationship he realises he's the one out of his depth. -
Simple- we give praise to God even through the pain and heart ache that life deals us. We give uplifting joyful Hallelujahs when life is happy and sad broken Hallelujahs when at times we feel we can't go on. We may not even feel it at the time but by giving praise with that broken Hallelujah we show we are not giving up. We know some where deep inside that God has not forsaken us. This song is beautiful, inspirational and powerful.
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Praise the lord, praise god, the god of music, paradise and hell, of victory, defeat, of joy, despair, of love and hatred, of kitchens, battles, work and leisure, war and peace and youth and age, health and disease, freedom and desire, the beginning, being, ending of all and everything existing, however you feel, whatever happens and whatever you do!
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This song reveals both kinds of love: spiritual and intimate. Both are equally disappointing, yet yearned for. It is a mourning cry for acceptance through both kinds of love, yet unrequited. Acceptance of this rejection is mournfully expressed. It is a fact of living after being abandoned, twice.
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Life hits you in different ways no one ever knows what can be next love hate despair fulfillment loneliness you can fall in love and tell the world is for ever next thing you know you are alone sitting in a coffee shop a book store a restaurant contaplating those happy couples that look so much in love and looking at your self and realizing oh my God I am all alone in a human way and than asking God to comfort you and help you and than too you could be one of those happy people of couples being contaplated by someone else going through those exacts thouhgts and emotions . Isn't life beautiful and at other times you are hurting too much to even want to think about those are all the different hallelujahs amen we all have to face them ...
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Someone said we needed to know Leonard's interpretation of this song. Here is Leonard said:
Leonard Cohen explained: "Hallelujah is a Hebrew word which means 'Glory to the Lord.' The song explains that many kinds of Hallelujahs do exist. I say: All the perfect and broken Hallelujahs have an equal value.
Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley Songfacts
www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=2504 -
Praise to god for the good the bad and the ugly for that is life.
More Leonard Cohen songs »
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