1 Chronicles 25:1

David Organizes the Musicians

25:1 David and the army officers selected some of the sons of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun to prophesy as they played stringed instruments and cymbals. ¹  The following men were assigned this responsibility: ² 

1 Chronicles 25:6

25:6 All of these were under the supervision of their fathers; they were musicians in the Lord’s temple, playing cymbals and stringed instruments as they served in God’s temple. Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman were under the supervision of the king.

Job 21:11-12

21:11 They allow their children to run ³  like a flock;

their little ones dance about.

21:12 They sing ⁴  to the accompaniment of tambourine and harp,

and make merry to the sound of the flute.

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!

Daniel 3:5

3:5 When you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, ⁵  trigon, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, you must ⁶  bow down and pay homage to the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar has erected.

Daniel 3:7

3:7 Therefore when they all ⁷  heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, trigon, harp, pipes, ⁸  and all kinds of music, all the peoples, nations, and language groups began bowing down and paying homage to the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had erected.

Daniel 3:15

3:15 Now if you are ready, when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, trigon, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, you must bow down and pay homage to the statue that I had made. If you don’t pay homage to it, you will immediately be thrown into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire. Now, who is that god who can rescue you from my power?” ⁹ 

Amos 6:5

6:5 They sing ¹⁰  to the tune of ¹¹  stringed instruments; ¹² 

like David they invent ¹³  musical instruments.

[25:1]  ¹ tn Heb “David and the officers of the army set apart for service the sons of Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun, the ones prophesying by harps, by lyres, and by cymbals.”

[25:1]  ² tn Heb “and their number was, the men of work for their service.”

[21:11]  ³ tn The verb שָׁלַח (shalakh) means “to send forth,” but in the Piel “to release; to allow to run free.” The picture of children frolicking in the fields and singing and dancing is symbolic of peaceful, prosperous times.

[21:12]  ⁴ tn The verb is simply “they take up [or lift up],” but the understood object is “their voices,” and so it means “they sing.”

[3:5]  ⁵ sn The word zither (Aramaic קִיתָרוֹס [qitaros]), and the words for harp (Aramaic פְּסַנְתֵּרִין [pÿsanterin]) and pipes (Aramaic סוּמְפֹּנְיָה [sumponÿyah]), are of Greek derivation. Though much has been made of this in terms of suggesting a date in the Hellenistic period for the writing of the book, it is not surprising that a few Greek cultural terms, all of them the names of musical instruments, should appear in this book. As a number of scholars have pointed out, the bigger surprise (if, in fact, the book is to be dated to the Hellenistic period) may be that there are so few Greek loanwords in Daniel.

[3:5]  ⁶ tn The imperfect Aramaic verbs have here an injunctive nuance.

[3:7]  ⁷ tn Aram “all the peoples.”

[3:7]  ⁸ tc Though not in the Aramaic text of BHS, this word appears in many medieval Hebrew MSS, some LXX MSS, and Vulgate. Cf. vv. 5, 10, 15.

[3:15]  ⁹ tn Aram “hand.” So also in v. 17.

[6:5]  ¹⁰ tn The meaning of the Hebrew verb פָּרַט (parat), which occurs only here in the OT, is unclear. Some translate “strum,” “pluck,” or “improvise.”

[6:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “upon the mouth of,” that is, “according to.”

[6:5]  ¹² sn The stringed instruments mentioned here are probably harps (cf. NIV, NRSV) or lutes (cf. NEB).

[6:5]  ¹³ tn The meaning of the Hebrew phrase חָשְׁבוּ לָהֶם (khoshvu lahem) is uncertain. Various options include: (1) “they think their musical instruments are like David’s”; (2) “they consider themselves musicians like David”; (3) “they esteem musical instruments highly like David”; (4) “they improvise [new songs] for themselves [on] instruments like David”; (5) “they invent musical instruments like David.” However, the most commonly accepted interpretation is that given in the translation (see S. M. Paul, Amos [Hermeneia], 206-7).