Amos 5:23

The songs and music accompanying the worship (cf. Amos 8:10; Isaiah 30:29 a) are rejected by Jehovah likewise. Of what nature these were in pre-exilic times, we do not precisely know: the descriptions in the Chronicles reflect the usage of a much later age, when the Temple music was more highly organized. The distinctly liturgical Psalms are also all probably post-exilic.

from me lit. from upon me: the praises of sinful Israel are represented as a burden to Jehovah, from which He would gladly be freed. Cf. Isaiah 1:14 (of various sacred seasons), "They are a cumbrance upon me."

viols most probably harps, but possibly lutes. See the Additional Note, p. 234.

Additional Note on Chap. Amos 5:23 (nçbhel)

The Hebrew word nçbhelis rendered violin A.V., R.V., of Amos 5:23; Amos 6:5; Isaiah 14:11, and in A.V. of Isaiah 5:12 (R.V. lute), elsewhere in both versions psaltery(2Sa 6:5; 1 Kings 10:12, &c.); in the P.B.V. of the Psalms, lute(Psalms 33:2; Psalms 57:9 (Psalms 108:3), Psalms 81:2; Psalms 92:4; Psalms 144:9; Psalms 150:3) [225], once (Psalms 71:20) vaguely music. Although there is no excuse for the same Heb. word being thus rendered differently in one and the same version, it is true that the exact instrument meant is uncertain. The LXX. usually represent nçbhelby νάβλα, or (Psalms generally, Isaiah 5:12; Nehemiah 12:27) ψαλτήριον, here and Amos 6:5 by the general term ὄργανα. The νάβλα was known to the Greeks as a Sidonian instrument (Athen. iv. p. 175); and we learn from Ovid (Ars Am. 3. 327) that it was played duplici palma. It is often in the O.T. coupled with the kinnôr; according to Josephus (Ant. 8. 3. 8) the difference between the κινύρα (kinnôr) and the νάβλα was that the former had ten strings and was played with the plectrum, the latter had twelve notes, and was played with the hand. These are substantially all the data which we possess for determining what instrument the nçbhelwas. Kinnôrin A.V., R.V., is always represented by harp: and if this rendering be correct, nçbhelmight well be the lyre. There is, however, force in the remark [226] that the kinnôris mentioned much more frequently than the nçbhel, and seems to have been in more common use; the nçbhelwas used at the feasts of the wealthy (Amos 6:5; Isaiah 5:12; Isaiah 14:11), or in religious ceremonies; it was therefore probably a more elaborate and expensive instrument. This consideration would point to kinnôrbeing the lyre, and nçbhelthe harp. The large and heavy stationary harp of modern times must not, however, be thought of: the nçbhelcould be played while the performer was walking (1 Samuel 10:5; 2 Samuel 6:5); and the ancients had small portable harps, of triangular shape (called accordingly by the Greeks τρίγωνα), which could be so used [227]. The word nçbhel, however, also means in Hebrew a wine-skin(1 Samuel 1:24), and an earthen jar(Isaiah 30:14); hence if the name of the musical instrument be etymologically the same word, it would seem rather to have denoted one possessing a bulging body or resonance-box: so that, after all, it is possible that some kind of luteor guitarmay be the instrument mentioned [228].

[225] All these names of instruments occur frequently in old English writers, though they are now practically obsolete. The viol(Norm. viele, Prov. viula, Span, vihuela, viola, Dan. fiddel, A.-S. fidele, from Low Lat. vitula, vidula), was a bowed instrument, in use from the 15th to the 18th centuries, an early form of the modern violin. The lute(Fr. luth, Ital. liuto, Port. alaude, from the Arab. "al-ûd, with the aof the article elided, -the wood," applied, κατʼ ἐξοχήν, to a particular instrument of wood, Lane, Arab. Lex., p. 2190), resembled a guitar, having a long neck with a bulging body, or resonance-box. It was played with a plectrum: among the Arabs it has been for long a popular instrument: see representations in Lane, Mod. Egyptians, chap. 18 (Exodus 5:2:67, 68), or Stainer, Music of the Bible, Figs. 18, 21. The psalterymay be described generally as a small lyre (see further D.B.1, and Grove's Dict. of Music, s.v.Psaltery)

[226] Riehm, Handwörterbuch des Bibl. Alt. p. 1030 (Exodus 2, p. 1044); Nowack, Hebr. Arch. i. 274.

[227] See representations of such portable harpsin Stainer, Music of the Bible, Figs. 1 8: also (from Assyria) Engel, Music of the most Ancient Nations, pp. 29 31, and frontispiece; DB2 s.v. Harp: Rawlinson, Anc. Monarchies, Bk. ii. ch. vii. (Exodus 4) p. 529 f., 542 (a procession of musicians the same as Engel's frontispiece): and from Egypt, Engel, p. 181 ff. (trigons, p. 195); Wilkinson-Birch, i. 465,469 470, 474 (trigons: larger harps resting on the ground, pp. 436 442, 462, 464).

[228] For representations of ancient guitars, see Rawlinson, l.c.p. 534; Wilkinson-Birch, pp. 481 483; Stainer, p. 28; Engel, pp. 204 208.

For various forms of lyresee Stainer, Figs. 9 17: Engel, pp. 38 40, 196 8; Rawlinson, l.c.pp. 531 533, 540; Wilkinson-Birch, pp. 476 478, and Plate XII., No. 16, opposite p. 480 (an interesting picture, from a tomb at Beni-hassan, representing the arrival of some Semites in Egypt): and on Jewish coins, Madden, Coins of the Jews, pp. 205, 235, 236, 241, 243 (with 3, 5, or 6 strings); Nowack, p. 274; Stainer, p. 62.

An ancient Assyrian portable harp (from Engel's Music of the most Ancient Nations, 1870, p. 29).

The nçbhelis mentioned as an instrument used for secular music in Amos 6:5; Isaiah 5:12; Isaiah 14:11, perhaps also 1 Kings 10:12; and in connexion with religious ceremonies, 1 Samuel 10:5 (as maintaining, with other instruments, the excitement of a troop of -prophets"), 2 Samuel 6:5; Amos 5:23; and often in the later parts of the O.T., as in the Psalms quoted above, and in the Chronicles, viz. 1 Chronicles 13:8; 1 Chronicles 15:16; 1Ch 15:20; 1 Chronicles 15:28; 1 Chronicles 16:5; 1Ch 25:1; 1 Chronicles 25:6; 2 Chronicles 5:12; 2Ch 9:11; 2 Chronicles 20:28; 2 Chronicles 29:25; Nehemiah 12:27, generally in conjunction with the kinnôr.