§ 93. USES OF MUSIC AMONG THE HEBREWS.

99

be the result of art, see Judg. 14: 18. Prov. 7: 13–15. 29: 17. Is. 26: 20, 21. 40: 24. 49: 8. 51: 1, 2—5, 8. 53: 6, 7. Zech. 11: 1.

$92. ON MUSIC.

Music is coeval with poetry. Musical instruments were the invention of Jubal, Gen. 4: 21. and, as early as Gen. 31: 27, we are introduced to a whole choir. Afterwards music and poetry went hand in hand, and with equal step. The poet himself sung his own poems and accompanied his voice with instruments. Both music and poetry were esteemed of great consequence, and without doubt as long as poetry was cultivated, mu. sic was none the less so. The music of the Hebrews may be thought to have been too loud and noisy, but a person's opinion on a point of that kind will depend very much on his own personal habits and experience.

$93. USES OF MUSIC among the Hebrews.

The Hebrews insisted on having music at marriages, on anniversary birthdays, on the days which reminded them of victories over their enemies, at the inauguration of their kings, in their public worship, and when they were coming from afar to attend the great festivals of their nation, Is. 30: 29. In the tabernacle and the temple, the Levites were the lawful musicians, but on other occasions any one who chose might use musical instruments. There was however, this exception; the holy silver trumpets were to be blown only by the priests, who, by the sounding of them, proclaimed the festival days, assembled the leaders of the people, and gave the signal for battle, and for the retreat, Num. 1: 1 -10. David, in order to give the best effect to the music of the tabernacle, divided the four thousand Levites into twenty four classes, who sung psalms, and accompanied them with music. Each of these classes was superintended by a leader,, placed over it; and they performed the duties, which devolved upon them, each class a week at a time in succession, 1 Chron. 16: 5. 23: 4, 5, 25: 1–31. comp. 2 Chron. 5: 12, 13. The classes collectively, as a united body, were superintended by three directors. This arrangement was subsequently continued by Solomon after

88

99

(91. CHARACTER OF THE HEBREW POETRY.

this period, as edifices, the arts, Ge 18: 4, 5, 6. 18. 27: 3,4 Occur cont time of Mo

$82. THE

Egypt in in a knowled maining four initiated to their master were sufficie ment the ta

laws in fav

them in the

in the praise

23, &c.

Th

of view, was

was done in

industry of tl

83

Soon afte by Joab of tl ley of crafts. About this ver, Judg. I' ish much, al which were of craftsme Judg. 3:31

difficult ins self. The clothing no

hmfy with wings, Ps. 139: 9. Mal. 4: 2 The thunders are
bume on chariots, but these chariots are not drawn by horses, but
by cherubim, gn, monsters that are symbolic of the clouds,
Eask 1:9-99. Ps. 18: 10. 99: 1. We find mention made of a
golden age, Is. 24. 11:6-9. 24: 23. 30:24-28. 60:19, 20. 65:
4-25 06:1-5; of the infernal regions also, sheol or hades,
Ha, into which descend not only soldiers, warlike heroes
and emperors, even all who die, but also by a figure of speech,
conquered nations and states, and even trees, the symbols of states.
The warriors repose in this wide abode on couches, with their ar
mour placed beneath their head, Is. 14: 9-20. Ezek. 26: 20. 31:
14-18 32 7, 8. 17:30. Matt. 16: 18. We find mention likewise
of the rivers of hades, Ps. 18: 4-6. 2 Sam. 22: 5; and of a politi-
cal beaven, which can be shaken, and the moon and the stars there-
of be obscured or cast down with great confusion and overthrow,
Hag. 2: 6, 21. Is. 24: 21-23. 34: 4. 65: 17. Amos 8: 9, 10.
Matt. 24:29.

III. The poems in the Hebrew language may have been meas-
ured by means of a certain number of syllables or words, but we
have reason to believe, that the rhythm consisted essentially and
chiefly in the parallelism. The parallelism, which is sometimes
synonymous and sometimes antithetical, and sometimes shows it-
self merely in the construction, independent of the sense, consists
in many cases of only two members, see Ps. 114: 1-8; in other
instances there are three members, see Hos. 6: 1, 2; in other
instances again there are four members, the first answering to the
third, and the second to the fourth, see Deut. 32:42. Sometimes
the parallelism displays itself in five verses or members, the two
first and the two last being parallel, and the middle one unequal,
Is 31:4. or the first being parallel to the third, and the second
to the fourth, and the fifth being unequal, see Ps. 19: 8-10. In
some instances the poetry may be called irregular, i. e. incapable
of being reduced to the more common forms of parallelism, Ps
113: 5,6. Micah 1:4. These traits in the Hebrew poetry, when
well understood, afford very considerable aid in the interpretation
and criticism of the Bible, as for instance in such passages as Pa
77: 18, 19 139: 20. Is. 47: 11. 49: 6, 16. One may find, in de
parallelisms in various places, a similarity in the cadences, which
gives to them a more than ordinary musical effect, and to

the erection of the temple, and was transmitted till the time of the overthrow of Jerusalem. It was indeed sometimes interrupted during the reign of the idolatrous kings, but was restored by their successors, 2 Chron. 5: 12-14. 29: 27. 35: 15. It was even continued after the captivity, Ezra 3: 10. Neh. 12: 45—47. 1 Mac. 4: 54. 13: 51. It should be remarked, however, that neither music nor poetry attained to the same excellence after the captivity, as before that period.

$94. STRINGED INSTRUMENTS.

1. THE HARP, i. This was the most ancient of this class of instruments, Gen. 4:21. It was sometimes called sheminith,, or eight-stringed. Ps. 6: 1. 12: 1. 1 Chron. 15: 21. although as we may gather from the coins or medals of the Maccabean age, there were some harps, which were furnished with only three strings. The harp, therefore, was of two kinds, one only of which is distinguished by a separate name, viz. that called sheminith, unless perchance separate names should be found for both in the Greek, the three-stringed harp being called άoα, the other xivoa,

for these two words appear to be used with some distinction of this kind in 1 Mac. 4: 54. Josephus in his Jewish Antiquities, VII. 10. 3. assigns ten strings to the harp, an evidence that in his time. the number of them had been increased. The strings of this instrument, it is lawful to suppose, were originally swept by the hand, but in Josephus' time, it was played with a small bow or fret; which act is denominated in Hebrew by the words w, 73,

This instrument, viz. the ancient .זְבֵּר and even נִבָּא, הָמָה, שָׁאָה

harp, seems to have been called by the Babylonians Dan. 3: 5, 7, 10, 15.

and

II. THE NABLUM or PSALTERY,, váßla, vavha. It is first mentioned in the psalms of David. In Psalms 33: 2. and 144: 9. it is called a ten-stringed instrument; but in Ps. 92: 3. it is distinguished from it. Josephus, Antiq. VII. 10. 3. assigns to it twelve strings; which, taken in connexion with the fact above stated, leaves us to conclude, that it sometimes had ten and sometimes twelve strings. It was not played with a bow or fret, but with the fingers; the act of playing it is expressed in Hebrew by the word. It resembled in form a right angled triangle or the

Greek Delta inverted . The body of it was of wood and hollow, and was enclosed with a piece of leather tensely drawn. The chords were extended on the outside of the leather, and were fixed at one end into the transverse part of the triangular body of the instrument. Such is its form at the present day in the East, but it has only five strings in its modern shape, 2 Sam. 6: 5. 1 K. 10: 12. There was another instrument of this kind used in Babylonia; it was triangular in form, in Greek it is called oaußuxŋ, in Hebrew, Nand N; it had originally only four, but subsequently twenty strings, Dan. 3: 5, 7, 10, 15.

The chords of stringed instruments are denominated, Ps. 150: 4. At first they were the usual sort of strings twisted from flax or some like substance, but subsequently were manufactured from the entrails of sheep. Chords of the last kind are mentioned by Homer, as a recent invention.

95. WIND INSTRUMENTS.

1. THE ORGAN, (as it is called in the English version,) Heb. 4, uggab, Gen. 4: 21. It may be called the ancient shepherd's pipe, corresponding most nearly to the ouguys, or the pipe of Pan among the Greeks. It consisted at first of only one or two, but afterwards of about seven pipes made of reeds and differing from each other in length. The instrument, called mashrokitha, spin, used in Babylon, Dan. 3: 5. was of a similar construction.

II.halil, nehiloth, and nekeb, are wind instruments resembling the one just described, made of various materials, such as wood, reeds, horns, and bones. As far as we may be permitted to judge from the three kinds of pipes now used in the East, the Hebrew instrument called nehiloth is the one that is double in its structure, halil is perhaps the one of simpler form, having a single stem with an orifice through it, while nekeb answers to the one without an orifice, Is. 5: 12. 30: 29. Jer. 48: 36. Ps. 5: 1. Ezek. 28: 13.

.Dan,סיפנְיָא or according to the marginal reading,סוּמְפּוֹנְיָה .III

3: 5, 10, was a wind instrument made of reeds, by the Syrians called sambonja, by the Greeks samponja, and by the Italians zampogAccording to Servius, it was of a crooked shape.

na.

IV. THE HORN OR CROOKED TRUMPET, 7. This was a very an