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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Chronicles 15:16 - 15:16
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David gave the princes of the Levites a further charge to appoint singers with musical instruments for the solemn procession, which they accordingly did. שִׁיר כְּלֵי, instruments to accompany the song. In 1Ch 15:16 three kinds of these are named: נְבָלִים, nablia, ψαλτήρια, which Luther has translated by psalter, corresponds to the Arabic santir, which is an oblong box with a broad bottom and a somewhat convex sounding-board, over which strings of wire are stretched; an instrument something like the cithara. כִּנֹּרֹות, harps, more properly lutes, as this instrument more resembled our lute than the harp, and corresponded to the Arabic catgut instrument el ‛ûd (l-cûd); cf. Wetzstein in Delitzsch, Isaiah, S. 702, der 2 Aufl., where, however, the statement that the santir is essentially the same as the old German cymbal, vulgo Hackebrett, is incorrect, and calculated to bring confusion into the matter, for the cymbal was an instrument provided with a small bell. מִצִלְתַּיִם, the later word for צֶלְצְלִים, cymbals, castanets; see on 2Sa 6:5. מַשְׁמִיעִים does not belong to the three before-mentioned instruments (Berth.), but, as is clear from 1Ch 15:19, 1Ch 15:28, 1Ch 16:5, 1Ch 16:42, undoubtedly only to מְצִלְתַּיִם (Böttcher, Neue krit. Aehrenlese, iii. S. 223); but the meaning is not “modulating,” but “sounding clear or loud,” - according to the proper meaning of the word, to make to hear. The infinitive clause וגו לְהָרִים belongs to the preceding sentence: “in order to heighten the sound (both of the song and of the instrumental music) to joy,” i.e., to the expression of joy. לְשִׂימְחָה is frequently used to express festive joy: cf. 1Ch 15:25, 2Ch 23:18; 2Ch 29:30; but also as early as in 2Sa 6:12; 1Sa 18:6; Jdg 16:23, etc. - In 1Ch 15:17, 1Ch 15:18 the names of the singers and players are introduced; then in 1Ch 15:19-21 they are named in connection with the instruments they played; and finally, in 1Ch 15:22-24, the other Levites and priests who took part in the celebration are mentioned. The three chief singers, the Kohathite Heman, the Gershonite Asaph, and the Merarite Ethan, form the first class. See on 1Ch 6:33, 1Ch 6:39, and 1Ch 6:44. To the second class (הַמִּשְׁנִים, cf. הַמִּשְׁנֶה, 2Ki 23:4) belonged thirteen or fourteen persons, for in 1Ch 15:21 an Azaziah is named in the last series who is omitted in 1Ch 15:18; and it is more probable that his name has been dropped out of 1Ch 15:18 than that it came into our text, 1Ch 15:21, by an error. In 1Ch 15:18 בֵּן comes in after זְכַרְיָהוּ by an error or transcription, as we learn from the w before the following name, and from a comparison of 1Ch 15:20 and 1Ch 15:25. The name יַעֲזִיאֵל is in 1Ch 15:20 written עֲזִיאֵל, Yodh being rejected; and in 1Ch 16:5 it is יְעִיאֵל, which is probably only a transcriber's error, since יְעִיאֵל occurs along with it both in 1Ch 15:18 and in 1Ch 16:5. The names Benaiah and Maaseiah, which are repeated in 1Ch 15:20, have been there transposed. All the other names in vv.18 and 20 coincide.