Music in the New Testament Church


3. Musical instruments in Scripture

Among instruments of music used by the Hebrews a principal place is given to stringed instruments. Three groups of instruments are found in Scripture.

Wind instruments

  • The ‘ugab (Gen. 4:21; Job 21:12; 30:31), probably the so-called Pan’s pipes or syrinx.
  • The qeren or “horn” (Josh. 6:5; 1 Chr. 25:5).
  • The shophar, rendered “trumpet” (Josh. 6:4, 6, 8). The word means “bright,” and may have been so called from the clear, shrill sound it emitted. It was often used (Ex. 19:13; Num. 10:10; Judg. 7:16, 18; 1 Sam. 13:3).
  • The hatsotserah, or straight trumpet (Ps. 98:6; Num. 10:1-10). This name is supposed by some to be an onomatopoetic word, intended to imitate the pulse-like sound of the trumpet, like the Latin taratantara.
  • The halil, i.e, “bored through,” a flute or pipe (1 Sam. 10:5; 1 Kings 1:40; Isa. 5:12; Jer. 48:36) which is still used in Palestine.
  • The sumponyah, rendered “dulcimer” (Dan. 3:5), probably a sort of bagpipe.
  • The maskrokith’a (Dan. 3:5), rendered “flute,” but its precise nature is unknown.

Stringed instruments

  • The kinnor, the “harp.”
  • The nebel, “a skin bottle,” rendered “psaltery.”
  • The sabbeka, or “sackbut,” a lute or lyre.
  • The gittith, occurring in the title of Ps. 8; 8; 84.
  • Minnim (Ps. 150:4), rendered “stringed instruments;” in Ps. 45:8, in the form minni, probably the apocopated (i.e., shortened) plural, rendered, Authorized Version, “whereby,” and in the Revised Version “stringed instruments.”
  • Machalath, in the titles of Ps. 53 and 88; supposed to be a kind of lute or guitar.

Percussion instruments

  • The toph, an instrument of the drum kind, rendered “timbrel” (Ex. 15:20;Job 21:12; Ps. 68:25); also “tabret” (Gen. 31:27; Isa. 24:8; 1 Sam. 10:5).
  • The paamon, the “bells” on the robe of the high priest (Ex. 28:33;e 39:25).
  • The tseltselim, “cymbals” (2 Sam. 6:5; Ps. 150:5), which are struck together and produce a loud, clanging sound.
  • Metsilloth, “bells” on horses and camels for ornament, and metsiltayim, “cymbals” (1 Chr. 13:8; Ezra 3:10, etc.). These words are all derived from the same root, tsalal, meaning “to tinkle.”
  • The menaan’im, used only in 2 Sam. 6:5, rendered “cornets” (R.V., “castanets”); in the Vulgate, “sistra,” an instrument of agitation.
  • The shalishim, mentioned only in 1 Sam. 18:6, rendered “instruments of music” (marg. of R.V., “triangles or three-stringed instruments”).