Hallelujah

Leonard Cohen

Now, I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do ya?
It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya
She tied you to a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did, well really, what's it to ya?
There's a blaze of light in every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool ya
And even though it all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah


Lyrics submitted by typo, edited by Woulfz, Trinztrix, caryo, BMBArtistMgt

Hallelujah Lyrics as written by Leonard Cohen

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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Hallelujah song meanings
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  • +17
    General Comment

    To me, this song is all about how love can be so wrong, such a mistake, and yet at the same time, when all's said and done.. at the end of our life when we "stand before the Lord of Song", that it's never wrong, and it's never a mistake. C.S. Lewis wrote once that the only place where we can be safe from the dangers of love is hell.. And why would we want to be? :)

    And on another level, the whole song could be seen as a prayer, as the previous writer noted. Cohen's music makes me crazy sometimes because when I'm looking at lyrics, I'm not sure whether he's talking about a human relationship or a divine one. And a friend suggested that maybe I was analyzing way too much, and that, "maybe, if it's done right, all songs are a prayer at some level or another."

    I can't pretend to have an answer for that.. but the line quoted above, "There's a blaze of light in every word / It doesn't matter which you heard/ The holy or the broken Hallelujah.." pretty much says it all, for me. ;)

    sionaon January 14, 2005   Link

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