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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comFausset Bible Dictionary: Harp
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kinnor With ten strings, played on with a plectrum (quill), according to Josephus; but also with the hand by David (; ; ). Jubal invented it, the simplest kind of stringed instrument, and the" organ" (ugab), rather the "pipe," the simplest kind of wind instrument; his brother Jabal was" father of such as dwell in tents and have cattle." The brotherhood accords with the fact that the leisure of a nomad life was well suited to the production and appreciation of music (-21). The harp was the earliest of all musical instruments, and the national instrument of the Hebrew.
They used it, not as the Greeks, for expressing sorrow, but on occasions of joy and praise (; ; ); therefore, it was hung on the willows in the Babylonian captivity (; ). The words "My bowels shall sound like an harp" () do not allude to the sound as lugubrious, but to the strings vibrating when struck. There was a smaller harp played with the hand, as by the walking prophets (), besides the larger, with more strings, played with the plectrum. Its music, as that of other instruments, was raised to its highest perfection under David (). It was an important adjunct to the "schools of the prophets."