or Hallelujah, a Hebrew word signifying Praise the Lord, to be met with either at the beginning or end of some psalms; such as psalm cxlvii, and those that follow to the end. Alleluia was sung upon solemn days of rejoicing, Tobit xiii. 18. St John in the Revelation (xix. 1, 3, 4, 6) says, that he "heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluiah; . . . and the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen, Alleluiah." This hymn of joy and praises was transferred from the synagogue to the church. So much energy has been observed in this term, that the ancient church thought proper to preserve it, without translating it either into Greek or Latin, for fear of impairing its softness and expression. The fourth council of Toledo has prohibited the use of it in time of Lent, or other days of fasting, and in the ceremonies of mourning; and, according to the present practice of the Romish Church, this word is never repeated in Lent, nor in the obsequies of the dead: notwithstanding which, it is Allenmond used in the mass for the dead, according to the Mosarabic ritual, at the introit, when they sing, *Tu es portio mea, Domine, Alleluia*, in *terra viventium*, *Alleluia*, *Alleluia*.