1 Samuel 10:5

10:5 Afterward you will go to Gibeah of God, where there are Philistine officials. ¹  When you enter the town, you will meet a company of prophets coming down from the high place. They will have harps, tambourines, flutes, and lyres, and they will be prophesying.

1 Samuel 16:16

16:16 Let our lord instruct his servants who are here before you to look for a man who knows how to play the lyre. Then whenever the evil spirit from God comes upon you, he can play the lyre ²  and you will feel better.” ³ 

1 Samuel 16:2

16:2 Samuel replied, “How can I go? Saul will hear about it and kill me!” But the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you ⁴  and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’

1 Samuel 3:15

3:15 So Samuel lay down until morning. Then he opened the doors of the Lord’s house. But Samuel was afraid to tell Eli about the vision.

1 Samuel 3:1

The Call of Samuel

3:1 Now the boy Samuel continued serving the Lord under Eli’s supervision. ⁵  Word from the Lord was rare in those days; revelatory visions were infrequent.

1 Samuel 13:8

13:8 He waited for seven days, the time period indicated by Samuel. ⁶  But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the army began to abandon Saul. ⁷ 

1 Samuel 15:10-24

15:10 Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel: 15:11 “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned away from me and has not done what I told him to do.” Samuel became angry and he cried out to the Lord all that night.

15:12 Then Samuel got up early to meet Saul the next morning. But Samuel was informed, “Saul has gone to Carmel where ⁸  he is setting up a monument for himself. Then Samuel left ⁹  and went down to Gilgal.” ¹⁰  15:13 When Samuel came to him, ¹¹  Saul said to him, “May the Lord bless you! I have done what the Lord said.”

15:14 Samuel replied, “If that is the case, ¹²  then what is this sound of sheep in my ears and the sound of cattle that I hear?” 15:15 Saul said, “They were brought ¹³  from the Amalekites; the army spared the best of the flocks and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord our God. But everything else we slaughtered.”

15:16 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Wait a minute! ¹⁴  Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.” Saul ¹⁵  said to him, “Tell me.” 15:17 Samuel said, “Is it not true that when you were insignificant in your own eyes, you became head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord chose ¹⁶  you as king over Israel. 15:18 The Lord sent you on a campaign ¹⁷  saying, ‘Go and exterminate those sinful Amalekites! Fight against them until you ¹⁸  have destroyed them.’ 15:19 Why haven’t you obeyed ¹⁹  the Lord? Instead you have greedily rushed upon the plunder! You have done what is wrong in the Lord’s estimation.” ²⁰ 

15:20 Then Saul said to Samuel, “But I have obeyed ²¹  the Lord! I went on the campaign ²²  the Lord sent me on. I brought back King Agag of the Amalekites after exterminating the Amalekites. 15:21 But the army took from the plunder some of the sheep and cattle – the best of what was to be slaughtered – to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”

15:22 Then Samuel said,

“Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices

as much as he does in obedience? ²³ 

Certainly, ²⁴  obedience ²⁵  is better than sacrifice;

paying attention is better than ²⁶  the fat of rams.

15:23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination,

and presumption is like the evil of idolatry.

Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,

he has rejected you as ²⁷  king.”

15:24 Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have disobeyed what the Lord commanded ²⁸  and what you said as well. ²⁹  For I was afraid of the army, and I followed their wishes. ³⁰ 

Psalms 47:5

47:5 God has ascended his throne ³¹  amid loud shouts; ³² 

the Lord has ascended his throne amid the blaring of ram’s horns. ³³ 

Psalms 68:25-27

68:25 Singers walk in front;

musicians follow playing their stringed instruments, ³⁴ 

in the midst of young women playing tambourines. ³⁵ 

68:26 In your large assemblies praise God,

the Lord, in the assemblies of Israel! ³⁶ 

68:27 There is little Benjamin, their ruler, ³⁷ 

and the princes of Judah in their robes, ³⁸ 

along with the princes of Zebulun and the princes of Naphtali.

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, ³⁹  trigon, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, you must ⁴⁰  bow down and pay homage to the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar has erected.

Daniel 3:7

3:7 Therefore when they all ⁴¹  heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, trigon, harp, pipes, ⁴²  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 3:10

3:10 You have issued an edict, O king, that everyone must bow down and pay homage to the golden statue when they hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, trigon, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music.

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?” ⁴³ 

Amos 5:23

5:23 Take away from me your ⁴⁴  noisy songs;

I don’t want to hear the music of your stringed instruments. ⁴⁵ 

Amos 6:5

6:5 They sing ⁴⁶  to the tune of ⁴⁷  stringed instruments; ⁴⁸ 

like David they invent ⁴⁹  musical instruments.

[10:5]  ¹ tn Or “sentries.” Some translate “outpost” (NIV) or “garrison” (NAB, NRSV, NLT) here (see 1 Sam 13:3). The noun is plural in the Hebrew text, but the LXX and other ancient witnesses read a singular noun here.

[16:16]  ² tn Heb “and he will play with his hand.”

[16:16]  ³ tn Heb “and it will be better for you.”

[16:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “in your hand.”

[3:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “before Eli.”

[13:8]  ⁶ tn This apparently refers to the instructions given by Samuel in 1 Sam 10:8. If so, several years had passed. On the relationship between chs. 10 and 13, see V. P. Long, The Art of Biblical History (FCI), 201-23.

[13:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “dispersed from upon him”; NAB, NRSV “began to slip away.”

[15:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “and look.”

[15:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “and he turned and crossed over.”

[15:12]  ¹⁰ tc At the end of v. 12 the LXX and one Old Latin ms include the following words not found in the MT: “to Saul. And behold, he was offering as a burnt offering to the Lord the best of the spoils that he had brought from the Amalekites.”

[15:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “to Saul.”

[15:14]  ¹² tn The words “if that is the case” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[15:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “they brought them.”

[15:16]  ¹⁴ tn Or perhaps “be quiet.”

[15:16]  ¹⁵ tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading the singular (“he said”) rather than the plural (“they said”) of the Kethib.

[15:17]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “anointed.”

[15:18]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “journey.”

[15:18]  ¹⁸ tc The translation follows the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and the Targum in reading the second person singular suffix (“you”) rather than the third person plural suffix of the MT (“they”).

[15:19]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “listened to the voice of the Lord.”

[15:19]  ²⁰ tn Heb “you have done what is evil in the eyes of the Lord.”

[15:20]  ²¹ tn Heb “listened to the voice of the Lord.”

[15:20]  ²² tn Heb “journey.”

[15:22]  ²³ tn Heb “as [in] listening to the voice of the Lord.”

[15:22]  ²⁴ tn Heb “look.”

[15:22]  ²⁵ tn Heb “listening.”

[15:22]  ²⁶ tn The expression “is better” is understood here by ellipsis (see the immediately preceding statement).

[15:23]  ²⁷ tn Or “from [being].”

[15:24]  ²⁸ tn Heb “the mouth of the Lord.”

[15:24]  ²⁹ tn Heb “and your words.”

[15:24]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and I listened to their voice.”

[47:5]  ³¹ sn God ascended his throne. In the context of vv. 3-4, which refer to the conquest of the land under Joshua, v. 5 is best understood as referring to an historical event. When the Lord conquered the land and placed his people in it, he assumed a position of kingship, as predicted by Moses (see Exod 15:17-18, as well as Ps 114:1-2). That event is here described metaphorically in terms of a typical coronation ceremony for an earthly king (see 2 Sam 15:10; 2 Kgs 9:13). Verses 1-2, 8-9 focus on God’s continuing kingship, which extends over all nations.

[47:5]  ³² tn Heb “God ascended amid a shout.” The words “his throne” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The Lord’s coronation as king is described here (see v. 8). Here the perfect probably has a present perfect function, indicating a completed action with continuing effects.

[47:5]  ³³ tn Heb “the Lord amid the sound of the ram horn.” The verb “ascended” is understood by ellipsis; see the preceding line.

[68:25]  ³⁴ tn Heb “after [are] the stringed instrument players.”

[68:25]  ³⁵ sn To celebrate a military victory, women would play tambourines (see Exod 15:20; Judg 11:34; 1 Sam 18:6).

[68:26]  ³⁶ tn Heb “from the fountain of Israel,” which makes little, if any, sense here. The translation assumes an emendation to בְּמִקְרָאֵי (bÿmiqra’ey, “in the assemblies of [Israel]”).

[68:27]  ³⁷ sn Little Benjamin, their ruler. This may allude to the fact that Israel’s first king, Saul, was from the tribe of Benjamin.

[68:27]  ³⁸ tc The MT reads רִגְמָתָם (rigmatam), which many derive from רָגַם (ragam, “to kill by stoning”) and translates, “[in] their heaps,” that is, in large numbers.

[3:5]  ³⁹ 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]  ⁴⁰ tn The imperfect Aramaic verbs have here an injunctive nuance.

[3:7]  ⁴¹ tn Aram “all the peoples.”

[3:7]  ⁴² 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]  ⁴³ tn Aram “hand.” So also in v. 17.

[5:23]  ⁴⁴ tn In this verse the second person suffixes are singular and not plural like they are in vv. 21-22 and vv. 25-27. Some have suggested that perhaps a specific individual or group within the nation is in view.

[5:23]  ⁴⁵ tn The Hebrew word probably refers to “harps” (NASB, NIV, NRSV) or “lutes” (NEB).

[6:5]  ⁴⁶ 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]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “upon the mouth of,” that is, “according to.”

[6:5]  ⁴⁸ sn The stringed instruments mentioned here are probably harps (cf. NIV, NRSV) or lutes (cf. NEB).

[6:5]  ⁴⁹ 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).