Out of the worship of God, it was employed at festivals and for luxurious purposes (Amos vi :5). In the manufacture of this instrument a constant increase of splendor was exhibited. The first we meet with were made simply of the wood of the berosh (2 Sam. vi :5; Chron. xiii:8), others of the rarer algum tree (r Kings x :12; 2 Chron. ix: 1) ; and some perhaps of metal (Joseph. Antiq.
i :8, 3), unless the last is to be understood of par ticular parts of the instrument.
Conjectures respecting the probable form of this instrument have been exceedingly various. Pass ing by the eccentric notion that the nay'-bel was a kind of bagpipe, we may assume from the evi dent tendency of the Scriptural intimations, and from the general bearing of other authorities, that it was composed of strings stretched over a wooden frame. This being assumed or granted, we must proceed to seek some hint concerning its shape; and we find nothing more tangible than the concurrent testimony of Jerome, Isidorus, and Cassiodorus, that it was like the Greek letter A in verted v.
We are, however, far from thinking that the nay'-bel was always of this shape. It appears to us to be a general name for various of the larger stringed instruments of the harp kind, and also to denote, in a more special sense, one particular sort; in other words, that the nay'-bel was an strument of a cipal species, the name of which was applied to the whole genus. In fact, we have the names of several instruments which are generally ceived to be ent varieties of the nay'-bel. Before proceeding to these, we must press an opinion that one of these kinds, if not the principal kind, or the one most quently denoted by the word, was the ancient harp, agreeing more or less with that rep resented in the Egyptian monuments.
(3) Awsore (11.1%,..), occurs as an instrument in only a few places, and never but in connection with the nay-bel, except in Ps. xxxiii:2; Ps. cxliv:o.
(4) Stringed Instruments (71":eittith), a word which occurs in the titles to Ps. viii, lxxxi, lxxxiv, and is generally supposed to denote a musical instrument. From the name it has been supposed to be an instrument which David brought from Gath; and it has been inferred from Is. xvi:to that it was in particular use at the vintage season. If an instrument of music, it is remark able that it does not occur in the list of the instruments as signed by David to the temple musi cians; nor even in that list which ap pears in verses and 2 of Ps. lxxxi, in the
title of which it is found. The supposi tion of Gesenius, that it is a general name for a stringed instru ment, obviates this difficulty.
(5) Strings min-neene),which oc curs in Ps. c1:4 only, is supposed by some to denote a stringed instrument, but it seems merely a poetical allusion to the strings of any instrument.
(6) Sackbut sab-bek-aw'), an instru ment rendered `sackbut,' and which occurs only in Dan. iii :5, 7, io, 15. It seems to have been a species of harp or lyre, and, as some think, was only a species of the nay' -bel, distinguished by the number of its strings.
(7) Greek Psaltery (inr.?,fies-an-tay-reen'), the itiaXrhpiov or psaltery of the Greeks; it occurs only in Dan. iii:7, to, 15, where it is supposed to represent the Hebrew nay'-bel.
(8) Lute (Heb. makh-al-ath'), which occurs in the titles of Ps. liii and lxxxviii, supposed by Gesenius and others to denote a kind of lute or guitar, which instrument others find in the minnim above noticed. We should not like to affirm that instruments of this kind are represented by either of these words—not that we doubt whether the Hebrews had such instru ments, but because we are not satisfied that these are the precise words by which they were de noted.
2. Wind Instruments. There is, happily, less difficulty with respect to instruments of this class than with respect to stringed instruments. The most ordinary division of these is into trumpets and pipes, of which the Hebrews had both, and of various kinds.
(1) Horn (171.% keh'ren, 'hone), sometimes, but not often, occurs as the name of a musical in strument (Josh. vi :5; Chron. xxv :5 ; Dan. iii : 5, 7, to, 15). Of natural horns, and of instru ments in the shape of horns, the antiquity and general use are evinced by every extensive col lection of antiquities. It is admitted that nat ural horns were at first used, and that they at length came to bc imitated in metal, but were still called horns. This use and application of the word are illustrated in our 'cornet.' It is generally conceived that rams' horns were the instruments used by the early Hebrews, and these are, indeed, expressly named in our own and many other versions, as the instruments used at the noted siege of Jericho (Josh. vi :5) ; and the horns are those of the ram, which Josephus assigns to the soldiers of Gideon (Antiq. v:6, 5; comp. Judg. vii:I6)...