2 Samuel 6:5

6:5 while David and all Israel ¹  were energetically celebrating before the Lord, singing ²  and playing various stringed instruments, ³  tambourines, rattles, ⁴  and cymbals.

2 Samuel 6:1

David Brings the Ark to Jerusalem

6:1 David again assembled ⁵  all the best ⁶  men in Israel, thirty thousand in number.

2 Samuel 13:8

13:8 So Tamar went to the house of Amnon her brother, who was lying down. She took the dough, kneaded it, made some cakes while he watched, ⁷  and baked them. ⁸ 

2 Samuel 23:5

23:5 My dynasty is approved by God, ⁹ 

for he has made a perpetual covenant with me,

arranged in all its particulars and secured.

He always delivers me,

and brings all I desire to fruition. ¹⁰ 

2 Samuel 1:6

1:6 The young man who was telling him this ¹¹  said, “I just happened to be on Mount Gilboa and came across Saul leaning on his spear for support. The chariots and leaders of the horsemen were in hot pursuit of him.

Psalms 57:8

57:8 Awake, my soul! ¹² 

Awake, O stringed instrument and harp!

I will wake up at dawn! ¹³ 

Psalms 92:3

92:3 to the accompaniment of a ten-stringed instrument and a lyre,

to the accompaniment of the meditative tone of the harp.

Psalms 149:3

149:3 Let them praise his name with dancing!

Let them sing praises to him to the accompaniment of the tambourine and harp!

Psalms 150:3-5

150:3 Praise him with the blast of the horn!

Praise him with the lyre and the harp!

150:4 Praise him with the tambourine and with dancing!

Praise him with stringed instruments and the flute!

150:5 Praise him with loud cymbals!

Praise him with clanging cymbals!

Revelation 14:2-3

14:2 I also heard a sound ¹⁴  coming out of heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. Now ¹⁵  the sound I heard was like that made by harpists playing their harps, 14:3 and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No ¹⁶  one was able to learn the song except the one hundred and forty-four thousand who had been redeemed from the earth.

¹ tn Heb “all the house of Israel.”

² tc Heb “were celebrating before the Lord with all woods of fir” (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB). If the text is retained, the last expression must be elliptical, referring to musical instruments made from fir wood. But it is preferable to emend the text in light of 1 Chr 13:8, which reads “were celebrating before the Lord with all strength and with songs.”

³ tn Heb “with zithers [?] and with harps.”

⁴ tn That is, “sistrums” (so NAB, NIV); ASV, NASB, NRSV, CEV, NLT “castanets.”

⁵ tn The translation understands the verb to be a defective spelling of וַיְּאֱסֹף (vayyÿ’esof) due to quiescence of the letter א (alef). The root therefore is אסף (’sf, “to gather”). The Masoretes, however, pointed the verb as וַיֹּסֶף (vayyosef), understanding it to be a form of יָסַף (yasaf, “to add”). This does not fit the context, which calls for a verb of gathering.

⁶ tn Or “chosen.”

⁷ tn Heb “in his sight.”

⁸ tn Heb “the cakes.”

⁹ tn Heb “For not thus [is] my house with God?”

¹⁰ tn Heb “for all my deliverance and every desire, surely does he not make [it] grow?”

¹¹ tc The Syriac Peshitta and one ms of the LXX lack the words “who was telling him this” of the MT.

¹² tn Heb “glory,” but that makes little sense in the context. Some view כָּבוֹד (kavod, “glory”) here as a metonymy for man’s inner being (see BDB 459 s.v. II כָּבוֹד 5), but it is preferable to emend the form to כְּבֵדִי (kÿvediy, “my liver”). Like the heart, the liver is viewed as the seat of one’s emotions. See also Pss 16:9; 30:12; 108:1, as well as H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 64, and M. Dahood, Psalms (AB), 1:90. For an Ugaritic example of the heart/liver as the source of joy, see G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 47-48: “her [Anat’s] liver swelled with laughter, her heart was filled with joy, the liver of Anat with triumph.”

¹³ tn BDB 1007 s.v. שַׁחַר takes “dawn” as an adverbial accusative, though others understand it as a personified direct object. “Dawn” is used metaphorically for the time of deliverance and vindication the psalmist anticipates. When salvation “dawns,” the psalmist will “wake up” in praise.

¹⁴ tn Or “a voice” (cf. Rev 1:15), but since in this context nothing is mentioned as the content of the voice, it is preferable to translate φωνή (fwnh) as “sound” here.

¹⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the introduction of a new topic.

¹⁶ tn Grk “elders, and no one.” This is a continuation of the previous sentence in the Greek text, but because of the length and complexity of the sentence a new sentence was started here in the translation.