Choice Word: “Ranan” (Shout with Jubilation)- this post is in process and incomplete at this time
Choice Word: “Ranan” (Shout with Jubilation).
“Cry aloud, inhabitants of Zion! Ring out your joy (‘ranan’)! For the Great One in the midst of you is the Holy One of Israel!” (Isaiah 12:6).
CAUTION: SKIM AT YOUR OWN RISK. In this era of amazing advances in technology, there are sometimes unexpected consequences that turn out to be harmful to our Christian faith. One of these harmful improvements is the flood of believers who read scripture online, on the smart phone, on the computer screen. I’m convinced there should be a warning label on every one of the online Bibles… CAUTION: SKIM AT YOUR OWN RISK. So many of us now read the Word like we would read our emails or social media or the daily news. We skim the material hurriedly, superficially, carelessly. We skim the Scripture. Skim-reading the Bible doesn’t really bury the seed very deeply, of course. And in our skimming, we would be more likely to just skip over an important word or phrase without thinking, a word that could be vital to the whole passage. The fact is, the Bible is full of single words or short phrases that are too important to simply gloss over as if it wasn’t there. There are times in the Word when single words are intended to feed us, nourish our faith, stimulate us to think at a deeper level about the biblical text.
There are single words in Scripture that are like stop signs asking us to stop and consider carefully, to pause before moving forward in the reading. This series on my blog will try to unpack some of these power-packed words or phrases in Scripture… Words like: Behold; Rejoice; Truly; Woe; Blessed; Beware; Come; If. And I will attempt to also explore the meanings of some short phrases that are single words in the original biblical language, such as “Himeni” (Here I am); “Shema” (Listen and Do’); “Splagchnizonai” (deeply moved with compassion); “pistence” (believe), and “kal-v’chomer” (How much more). If it is poetically possible to “see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wildflower, and hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour,” as William Blake once imagined, then certainly we readers of Scripture can find a world of meaning in a single word, we can grasp something profound in a simple phrase.
Ranan (rinnah): The Hebrew praise word for a primal cry of intense joy; a ringing shout of ecstatic jubilation; to loudly creak out an exuberant song of joy; to vocally rejoice in an explosion of emotion; an overflowing burst of intense praise. This word is occasionally used in the Hebrew Bible for other intense outbursts, such as in fearful awe, or in distress, in great relief, or in a terrifying groan. But the vastly typical use of ranan is in the context of over-the-top exultant worship and thanksgiving.
A Completely Unique Word. The Hebrew scholar Dr. Skip Moen states that ranan is totally unique to the Hebrew language and is not found in any other near eastern languages. “Ranan is the cry of overwhelming emotions upon the discovery of holy joy in the God who saves. It’s much more than “joy” or “sing praises.'” It’s much more like the cry of awe and victory when the home team scores in the last second of the game. Ranan is the summary word of the Old Testament religion. That’s why we don’t find this word in any other culture. It can only belong to the people of the Lord of Hosts. Ranan! Ranan! Cry out with joy! Shout it out! God cares! God saves! God loves us! Let your emotions overflow! You are no longer lost! You have hope! God’s face has turned toward you! Ranan!
Is a Double-Dose of Ranan Even Possible? ‘”I will clothe Zion’s priests with salvation, and those saints who worship Me will loudly (‘ranan’) shout for joy (‘ranan’)! (Psalm 132:16). One translation puts it this way…“The saints shall make full-out joy in full-out rejoicing!” The psalmist was evidently so overwhelmed in the presence of the Lord and His spiritual deliverance that he doubled-up his intense outburst of ranan. He cries out in this passage, “Ranan! Ranan!” Could he have highlighted the incredible fervor of his rejoicing any more effectively? He super-sized his expressive worship. His joy in God was not merely abounding, or superabounding, but hyper-superabounding! One scholar said that this psalmist is “calling on us to participate in not merely a joyful song, but instead to burst into a sustained, resonant and jubilant shout of praise.“