MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS ("lt Q77, or simply D'6, 6p-yava). It is less difficult to deter mine the general character of the Hebrew instru ments of music, than to identify the particular instruments which are named in the Hebrew Scriptures. We see certain instruments different from our own in use among the modern Orientals, and we infer that the Hebrew instruments were probably not unlike these, because the Orientals change but little, and we recognise in them the peoples, and among them the habits and the manners described in the Bible. We see other instruments represented in great variety in the sculptures and mural tablets of the Egyptians ; and we conclude that the Hebrews had something similar, on account of their long sojourn among that people. We find also many instruments pre sented in the sculptures of Greece and Rome, and we need not refuse to draw inferences from them, for they derived their origin from the East, and the Romans distinctly refer them to Syria (Juv. Sat. iii. ; Liv. Hist. xxxix. 5). When, however, we endeavour to identify with these a particular instrument named by the Hebrews, our difficulty begins ; because the Hebrew names are seldom to be recognised in those which they now bear, and because the Scripture affords us little information respecting the form of the instruments which it mentions. There are some clues, however. It is likely that the Greeks and Romans retained the names of the instruments they derived from Syria, and these names have been preserved. The Orien. tals also have for the most part retained the original names of things really old ; and by comparing these names with the Hebrew, and then examining the instruments to which they appear to belong, shall throw some glimmerings of light on the subject.
The matter naturally arranges itself under the following heads : I. Stringed Instruments.
II. Wind Instruments.
III. Instruments of Percussion.
At the head of the STRINGED INSTRU MENTS, we must place the nip, kinnor, which is rendered harp' in the A. V. The invention and first use of this instrument are ascribed to Jubal (Gen. iv. 21) ; and Laban names it among the instruments which should have celebrated the de parture of his son-in-law (Gen. xxxi. 27). In the
first ages the kinnor was consecrated to joy and exultation ; hence the frequency of its use by David and others in praise of the Divine Majesty. It is thought probable that the instrument received some improvements from David (comp. Amos vi. 5). In bringing back the ark of the covenant (I Chron. xvi. 5), as well as afterwards, at the conse cration of the temple, the kinnor was assigned to players of known eminence, chiefly of the family of Jeduthun Chron. xxv. 3). Isaiah mentions it as used at festivals along with the rebel; he also describes it as carried round by Bayaderes from town to town (xxiii. 16), and as increasing by its presence the joy of vintage (xxiv. 8). When Jehoshaphat obtained his great victory over the Moabites, the triumphal entry into Jerusalem was accompanied by the rebel and the kinnor (2 Chron. xx. 27, 28). The sorrowing Jews of the captivity, far removed from their own land and the shadow of the sanctuary, hung their kinnors upon the willows by the waters of Babylon, and refused to sing the songs of Zion in a strange land (Ps. cxxxvii. 2). Many other passages of similar pur port might be adduced in order to fix the uses of an instrument, the name of which occurs so often in the Hebrew Scriptures. They mostly indicate occasions of joy, such as jubilees and festivals. Of the instrument itself, the Scripture affords us little further information than that it was composed of the sounding parts of good wood, and furnished with strings. David made it of the berosh-wood [BERosx] ; Solomon of the more costly algum (2 Sam. vi. 5 ; 2 Kings x. rz) ; and Josephus men tions some composed of the mixed metal called electrum. He also asserts that it was furnished with ten strings, and played with a plectrum (Antiq, vii. 12. 3); which, however, is not under stood to imply that it never had any other number of strings, or was always played with the plectrum. David certainly played it with the hand (a Sam. xvi. 23 ; xviii. It); xix. 9), and it was probably used in both ways, according to its size.