to sing
ra.nan denotes singing in joy, praise, or celebration, and can also mark a raised public cry.
The dominant attested use is joyful or celebratory singing: people, heavenly bodies, fields, trees, and other speakers are summoned or described as raising song in response to the LORD’s acts, presence, or blessing. A smaller group of passages places the verb in a public or urgent vocal setting, including Wisdom’s voice in the streets and a night-time cry in Lamentations.
Senses in use
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Joyful or celebratory singing · dominant
Imperatives and imperfects regularly occur where a speaker or group is called to vocal celebration. In Isaiah 52:9 the Piel imperative addresses Jerusalem’s ruins in a command to break forth together, while the APB renders the clause “Break forth together into singing” after the LORD has comforted and redeemed Jerusalem; in Psalm 95:1, a first-person plural cohortative introduces a communal call to sing to the LORD. Isaiah 24:14 and Psalm 149:5 likewise portray plural subjects lifting their voices or singing in joy.
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Raised cry or public vocal call · occasional
Some occurrences place the verb in settings of audible calling rather than an explicitly joyful celebration. In Proverbs 1:20 and Proverbs 8:3, the feminine singular imperfect describes Wisdom’s voice in streets, squares, gates, and entrances; the APB renders these clauses “Wisdom sings in the street” and “she sings.” In Lamentations 2:19, the feminine singular imperative opens an urgent night-time appeal, rendered by the APB as “Arise, cry out in the night.”
In the Anselm Project Bible: Across these verses, the APB commonly uses “sing,” “sing for joy,” or “singing,” while also using “cry out,” “shout,” and “shout for joy” in some clauses. Because the APB translates whole verses rather than aligning each English word to the Hebrew form, those variations indicate the surrounding vocal setting rather than fixed English equivalents.