i also love kd lang's version - check out the playlist hallelujah to hear a bunch of versions of this song

deep song i love it. it gives me me this feeling i can't explain every time i hear it.

I agree with dana yovel. The song, to me, represents the hardships of love-- versus the storybook fairytale that love is always happy and wonderful. People in love fight and argue and, sometimes, they seperate for periods of time. The thing that makes it love is compromising and coming back together. The biblical references may be what inspired the lyrics, or may just be the way the author chose to get his point acoss-- afterall, it can be assumed that even people not particularly religious would have the skill of context clues to guess at the meanings.
sooo.. dana?... you're pretty cool.

Amazing song. I can relate with it.

Dana Yovel: Beautifully stated. Thank you for taking the time to share.

As for the Christians stating that this is religious and the non-Christians saying that it's not religious, I think I'll put in my two cents as a Jew. Seeing as the texts you're referencing to were originally ours, it makes sense.
You're both right, people. The first verse does refer to King David and his writing the Tehillim (Psalms), specifically, #150, which is full of "Hallelujah"s.
The second verse actually references to two different stories. The part about "you saw her bathing on the roof" refers to King David seeing Bat-Sheva for the very first time while she's, literally, bathing on the roof. He goes on to have her husband sent to the front lines of battle in order for him to die and for David to be able to marry her. The part about "cutting your hair" does refer to Samson having his power stripped away with Delilah cutting off his hair.
However, these stories are only used as metaphors for the message of the rest of the verses. Essentially, both stories are examples of love gone wrong, with David coveting the wife of another man, and Delilah betraying her husband to the Philistines. The message of the song, in my opinion, is that love has two parts to it: a positive and negative side. The two parts intermingle in every relationship, giving it a bittersweet existence. But it is important, the song says, to recall the positive times when it is negative, since love is "not a victory march" that is easy and always happy, but rather a process in which people change and learn from each other. The song says that love is not something tangible and feasible, like Bat-Sheva's beauty or Samson's strength but rather an emotion that must be felt rather than seen.
Just my opinion. Feel free to reply. Thanks for reading!

I just sit and listen to this song. And the notes and words become something so powerful... it really can relate to me.

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 you?
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
in the moonlight
overthrew you
She tied you
To a kitchen chair
She broke your throne,
she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Maybe I've been here before
I know this room, I've walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you
I've seen your flag on the marble arch
love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

There was a time you'd let me know
What's real and going on below
But now you never show it to me do you?
Remember when I moved in you?
The holy dark was moving too
And every breath we drew was hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Maybe there's a God above
And all I ever learned from love
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you
It's not a cry you can hear at night
It's not somebody who's seen the light
It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

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 you?
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
in the moonlight
overthrew you
She tied you
To a kitchen chair
She broke your throne,
she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Maybe I've been here before
I know this room, I've walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you
I've seen your flag on the marble arch
love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

There was a time you'd let me know
What's real and going on below
But now you never show it to me do you?
Remember when I moved in you?
The holy dark was moving too
And every breath we drew was hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Maybe there's a God above
And all I ever learned from love
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you
It's not a cry you can hear at night
It's not somebody who's seen the light
It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

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 you?
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
in the moonlight
overthrew you
She tied you
To a kitchen chair
She broke your throne,
she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Maybe I've been here before
I know this room, I've walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you
I've seen your flag on the marble arch
love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

There was a time you'd let me know
What's real and going on below
But now you never show it to me do you?
Remember when I moved in you?
The holy dark was moving too
And every breath we drew was hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Maybe there's a God above
And all I ever learned from love
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you
It's not a cry you can hear at night
It's not somebody who's seen the light
It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah