87. The case is the same with all other such instances. Take, for example, places where joy is mentioned and also gladness, as in the following:
Behold, joy and gladness, the slaying of oxen.... (Isaiah 22:13)
They shall obtain joy and gladness; sorrow and sighing shall flee away. (Isaiah 35:10, 51:11)
...cut off...from the house of our God [are] joy and gladness. (Joel 1:16)
(Taken from them will be) the sound of joy and the sound of gladness.... (Jeremiah 7:34, 25:10)
...the fast of the tenth [month] shall be for the house of Judah an occasion of joy and gladness.... (Zechariah 8:19)
...that we may rejoice...all our days! Make us glad.... (Psalms 90:14-15)
Be glad in Jerusalem; rejoice in her.... (Isaiah 66:10)
Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom.... (Lamentations 4:21)
The heavens will be glad, the earth will rejoice. (Psalms 96:11)
(They) will make me hear joy and gladness.... (Psalms 51:8)
Joy and gladness will be found in (Zion), confession and the sound of singing. (Isaiah 51:3)
(There will be) gladness, and many will rejoice at His birth. (Luke 1:14)
I will cause to cease...the sound of joy and the sound of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. (Jeremiah 7:34, 16:9, cf. 25:10)
Again there shall be heard in this place...the sound of joy and the sound of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.... (Jeremiah 33:10-11)
And elsewhere.
[2] Both joy and gladness are mentioned together because joy has to do with goodness and gladness with truth; or to put it another way, because joy is connected with love and gladness with wisdom. For joy is an expression of the heart, and gladness an expression of the soul; or to put it another way, joy is a matter of the will, and gladness of the intellect.
That a marriage of the Lord and the church is present in these expressions as well is apparent from the declaration, “the sound of joy and the sound of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride” (Jeremiah 7:34, 16:9, 25:10, 33:10-11), in which the Lord is the bridegroom and the church is the bride. That the Lord is the bridegroom may be seen in Matthew 9:15, Mark 2:19-20, and Luke 5:34-35; and that the church is the bride, in Revelation 21:2, 9 and 22:17. That is why John the Baptist says of Jesus, “He who has the bride is the bridegroom” (John 3:29).
