Four commands in thirteen words: rejoice, be glad, be joyful, and the surprise — the last group addressed is the one that mourns for her. Isaiah does not tell the mourners to stop mourning. He tells them to rejoice, in the same breath and the same grammar. That reversal is the whole verse, and it is why the line is sung at weddings and on Jerusalem Day and also at the end of a fast.
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♪ TuningE A D G B E
Key: Am · 3 chords used ·Am · Dm · E
108 BPM · 4/4 · brisk, hand-clapping tempo · thirteen words, four of which are imperatives, which is why it moves · to reset the chord panel:
Active voicings · printable
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Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad in her, all you who love her;
שִׂישׂוּ
si-SU
be joyful! (2mp)
אִתָּהּ
i-TAH
with her
מָשׂוֹשׂ
ma-SOS
a rejoicing
כׇּל
kol
all
הַמִּתְאַבְּלִים
ha-mit-ab-LIM
who mourn
עָלֶיהָ
a-lei-A
for her
|E|Am|
be joyful with her, all you who mourn for her.
Three of the four imperatives are different verbs for the same thing, which is not clumsiness: שִׂמְחוּ (sim-chu), וְגִילוּ (ve-gi-lu) and שִׂישׂוּ (si-su) pile up because the verse is trying to make joy sound plural. Then מָשׂוֹשׂ (ma-sos) repeats the root of שִׂישׂוּ (si-su) as a noun — literally "be joyful with her a joy", a construction Hebrew loves and English has no way to keep. And every one of these forms is masculine plural, addressed to a crowd. You cannot sing this verse to one person; the grammar will not let you.
♫ Singing notes
Clapping on beats two and four is the default and it is what a room will do without being asked.
The two halves are the same length. If your tune makes the second half longer, you have stretched מָשׂוֹשׂ (ma-sos) — let it pass quickly, it is a grammatical echo rather than a word to lean on.
The last two words are the point of the verse. Whoever is leading should not swallow them.
It sits comfortably in A minor for most voices. If the group is mostly low, drop it to G minor rather than trying to reach.
♦ About this song
The text
Isaiah 66:10, from the last chapter of the book. The surrounding verses use the image of a mother and a newborn, which is why the joy in this verse is described as something you share with the city rather than something you feel about it.
Addressed to the mourners
The second half is not a separate group being consoled. It is the same command given to the people least able to obey it, and the verse offers no transition between the two. Reading it, or singing it, in one breath is what makes the point land.
Where you will hear it
At weddings, at Jerusalem Day gatherings, and at the meal that ends the fast of the Ninth of Av, where the reversal in the verse is doing exactly the work it was written for.
Hebrew: Isaiah 66:10 · Miqra according to the Masorah · CC-BY-SA, via Sefaria, pinned in this repo at content/songs/source/029.json.
English gloss lines authored for this site; the source translation is used as raw material only. Transliteration generated by this site's own engine (assets/translit.js).