Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Revelation 19:1

"After these things I heard as it were a great voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, Hallelujah; Salvation, and glory, and power, belong to our God:" — Revelation 19:1 (ASV)

The English word “Hallelujah” (GK 252) transliterates a Greek word, which in turn transliterates the Hebrew hallelu yah, meaning “Praise the LORD!” This transliteration occurs only here in the NT (vv.1, 3, 4, 6), but in the LXX it is a frequent title for certain of the psalms (112:1; 113:1; et al.). This phenomenon clearly illustrates the connection of the early church’s liturgical worship with the synagogue and temple worship of the first century. These praise psalms formed an important part of Jewish festival celebrations.

The Hallel is the name especially applied to Pss 113–118 (also called “The Hallel of Egypt” because of the references in them to the Exodus). They had a special role in the Feast of Passover. Most Jewish sources associate the Hallel with the destruction of the wicked, exactly as this passage in Revelation does. These psalms were what Jesus and the disciples sang after the PassoverEucharist celebration, before going out to the Mount of Olives the night before his death (Matthew 26:30). This close connection between the Hallel, Passover Lamb, and the death of Jesus no doubt explains why all the early church liturgies incorporated the Hallel into the Easter and Easter Week liturgies, which celebrate the gospel of redemption from sin, Satan, and death in the victorious triumph of Christ, our Passover. Two texts in the great Hallel (115:13) are unmistakably cited in 19:5.

The theme of “salvation” (GK 5401) has already been sounded in Revelation in connection with victory or divine justice (7:10; 12:10). God has indeed vindicated the injustice visited on his servants by meting out true justice on the great prostitute, Babylon. She deserves the sentence because she corrupted the earth (cf. 11:18; Jeremiah 51:25) and killed the saints of God (cf. 18:24).