Amos 6:5

chant improvise idly. The word (pâraṭ) occurs only here; and its meaning is uncertain: but (if the text be correct) this on the whole is the most probable rendering: see the Additional Note, p. 236. In illustration of the custom of having music at banquets, see Isaiah 5:12; Isaiah 24:9.

the viol the harp (comp. Amos 5:23, and see p. 234 ff.).

devise for themselves instruments of musick, like David or, perhaps, like David's. The skill of David as a player on the kinnôr(p. 234) is of course, well known (1 Samuel 16:18; 1 Samuel 16:23, &c.): this passage speaks of him as famed further either for the musical instruments which he invented, or for those which he owned, and which will naturally have been performed upon either by himself or by others at his direction. The comparison rather suggests that the music for which David at this time was chiefly remembered was of a secular kind (cf., of Solomon, 1 Kings 10:12 where -singers" is not the term used technically in later writings of the Temple-singers), but it is obviously not inconsistent with the tradition embodied in the Chronicles that he cultivated sacred music as well. Comp. W. R. Smith, O.T.J.C[176][177] p. 223 f.

[176] .T.J.C.… W. Robertson Smith, The Old Testament in the Jewish Church, ed. 2, 1892.

[177] … W. Robertson Smith, The Old Testament in the Jewish Church, ed. 2, 1892.

Additional Note on Chap. Amos 6:5 (pâraṭ)

The root in Arabic which corresponds to the Hebrew pâraṭmeans properly to precede, anticipate, hence faraṭa minhu kalâm, "speech proceeded from him prematurely, without reflexion," and faraṭa -alaihi(Qor. 20:47), "he hasted (acted hastily and unjustly) against him"; conj. ii. to send before, hence to send before so as to leave, to relinquish, to fail, be remiss, neglectfulin anything (Qor. 6:31, 12:80, 39:57); conj. iii. takallama firâṭan, he spoke hastily, without premeditation; conj. iv. to send before(Qor. xvi. 64 "They shall be sent firstinto the fire of hell"), to hasten, and (very frequently) to exceed due bounds, act extravagantlyin a thing, "afraṭa fi "lqauli, to be immoderate in talk. It is thus just possible that, as Abul-walid supposed, it might be used of those who extemporizedpoetry over-rapidly, without premeditation, in a hurried flow of unmeaning, unconsidered words: hence R.V. sing idle songs. The mediaeval Jewish authorities, Rashi, Ibn Ezra, and David Kimchi, connecting the word with pereṭ(Leviticus 19:10), the fallen or separatedberries in a vineyard, supposed it to denote the way in which a singer divideshis words into parts (מְחַתֵּךְ אֶת־הַדּבּוּר בִּפְרוּסְרוּם) to suit the notes of the accompaniment; hence, no doubt, A. V. chant(marg. quaver). (In Dr Pusey's note, "measured out defilements" should be "divided the melody": a word was inaccurately transcribed in the Thesaurusof Gesenius; see Roediger's note in the Appendix, p. 107, or Neubauer's ed. of Abul-walid's Lexicon, col. 586.)

An ancient Egyptian lyre (from Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, 1878, ii. 476).

An ancient Egyptian guitar [229] (from Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, 1878, ii. 481).

[229] The lutediffers substantially from the guitar only in having a shorter neck.