View PDFThe content displayed below is for educational and archival purposes only.
Unless stated otherwise, content is © Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania
You may be able to find the original on wol.jw.org
STRINGED INSTRUMENT
There is uncertainty about the instrument(s) designated by the various original-language words rendered “stringed instrument.” The neʹvel is usually mentioned together with the kin·nohrʹ (harp), indicating that these instruments are distinctly different. The neʹvel, a portable instrument made from wood (1Ki 10:12), was used to play both sacred and secular music. (2Sa 6:5; 2Ch 5:12; Ne 12:27; Isa 5:12; 14:4, 11) Evidently various stringed instruments were employed, for the Bible mentions min·nimʹ (“strings”; Ps 150:4), keliʹ neʹvel (‘instrument of the string type’ or “stringed sort”; 1Ch 16:5; Ps 71:22), neʹvel ʽa·sohrʹ (“an instrument of ten strings,” ʽa·sohrʹ being linked with a word meaning “ten”; Ps 33:2; 144:9), neghi·nohthʹ (related to a verb meaning “play a stringed instrument”; superscriptions of Ps 4, 6, 54, 55, 61, 67, 76), and pesan·te·rinʹ (understood to mean a “stringed instrument” of triangular shape; Da 3:5, 7, 10, 15).—See HARP.
