• 'I'he iiebel was an instrument apparently much re- sembling the kiiinor in its nature and properties, tliough considerably different in form. According to Jost'iihus (.•lH^vii, 12, 13) it had twelve strings, which were played upon with the liand. One variety of it had only ten strings, and was distinguished as TiiU? ^33 ; and from an expression in Isa. xxii, 24 — "'^S'bs C'i^iil, all manner of mM instrimients — we gather tiiat tiic instrument, like the harp, was used in various sizes and shapes. What its distinctive form was — ])rcserved, no doubt, in the main, in all its varieties — cannot be determined with certainty. The etymology of the name, like that of Icinnor, suggests a curved shape like that of a leathern bottle ; but whether it was so call- ed because the whole iustrumeut was of this shape —
like the lyre, which is occasionally described by the Lat- in poets as the li/ra cttrvu — or because only a part of it was thus curved, viz. the sounding-board, as in the lute or guitar, it is impossible to decide. It is here we be- gin to feel the difficulty before referred to of identifying the Hebrew names with particular instruments. Kitto, as already noticed, pleads strongly for identifying it with the harp, while assigning the name kinnor to the lyre ; but ancient authorities are opposed to this view, and he lands himself in the difficulty of being unable to find any Hebrew name at all fur the lute or guitar, which he notwithstanding admits to have been in com- mon use along with the lyre and harp. We cannot see, moreover, tliat anything is gained or any difficulty re- moved by adopting this opinion. We prefer to leave it a doubtful question whether the mbtl was a lyre or a lute, or even some other form of stringed instrument, like that, for example, represented in the above illustra- tion, derived from the Assyrian monuments. The only certain proof we possess of a lyre- like instrument having been in use among the Hebrews is the adjoin- ing figure upon a coin of the times of the Maccabees. That either lutes or stringed instruments resembling the Assyrian ones just alluded to were emjiloyed by the Hebrews is a matter only of probable inference, from the fact that such instruments were in common use among the neighboring nations; we have no direct proof of it. Examples of lyres of various shapes and capabilities arc shown on the monu-
Jcwish Lyre. (British Museum.)
Egyptian Lyres: Fig. 1. Plaved with plectrum : 2. Played with Angers. (Piiiutings at Thebef.)
ments of Egypt and Assyria, To tlicse we may add il- lustrations of Assyrian and Egyptian lutes or guitars. It ueed only be added that the ntbel of I'alestine and
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
767
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
Assyriau L3Tes : Figs. 1, 2. Sculptures from Kouyunjik (British Ma eeuni) ; 3. From Botta's Mneve.
the East must have had some considerable differences in form and properties from either the classical lyre or lute, as it was known and distinguished among the Greeks and Romans by its Oriental name, which the Greeks slightly altered into vdj3\a or vdj3\io7', and the Romans into nublium. See
PSALTEltY,
3. The X330, sabbekd, or
"sackbut" of our version, is the
third instrument in the list in
Dan. iii, 5, 7, That this was a
stringed instrument is certain,
for the name passed over into
Assyrian Lute. (Terra- ^reek and Latin in the forms
cotta tigure in British ffanlSuKi] and sambuca ; female
M"«e'™-) ■ performers on it from the East,
called (TttfifivKai, sambucince, and sambiicistrim by the
classical authors, visited the cities of Europe, and found
their way as far as Rome; and the instrument is de-
igyptiau Lutes. (P;
iiitiiii; from a tomb at Thebes, Brit- ish Museum.)
scribed by Athenreus (iv, 175 ; xiv, 633) as a harp-like instrument of four or more strings, and of a triangular form. Now it is remarkable that one of the musical instruments most frequently occurring in the Assyrian sculptures answers very closely to this description. On comparing the instrument here represented with that
Sackbut. (Assyriau bass-relief, British Museum.) exhibited in the procession above, a difference of struct- ure will be observed, viz. that in the latter the strings seem to be carried over a bridge, which is not the case
with the former. In other respects the two forms are exactly the same ; and the instru- ment was evidently a peculiarly Assyrian one, as there is nothing resembling it to be found on the Egyptian monuments or in the sculptures of Greece and Rome. This ap- pears to us a decisive consideration in favor of identifying it with the sackbut of Dan. iii, 5, rather than with the n^3bT3*lD {sympho- nid) of the same list, the word translated dulcimer in our version. This latter name is evidently borrowed from the Greek, and as such was no doubt the name of a Greek and not a native instrument; whereas the name and the nat- ure of the sackbut were both probably Oriental, as the instrument figured in these Assyrian sculptures indubi- tably was. What the symphonia itself was it is impossi- ble to say. It is worth men- tioning that one of the musi- cians performing upon what we thus presume to have been the sackbut, is distinguished from the rest by a peciUiar head- dress, which may probably have been a mark of distinction as- signed to " the chief of the mu- sicians" at the Assyrian court, an officer who was the counter- part of the Hebrew nS3p, such as Asaph or Jeduthun. See Sackbut.