STRINGED INSTRUMENT

There is uncertainty about the instrument(s) designated by the various original-language words rendered “stringed instrument.” The neʹvel is usually mentioned together with the kin·nohrʹ (harp), indicating that these instruments are distinctly different. The neʹvel, a portable instrument made from wood (1Ki 10:12), was used to play both sacred and secular music. (2Sa 6:5; 2Ch 5:12; Ne 12:27; Isa 5:12; 14:4, 11) Evidently various stringed instruments were employed, for the Bible mentions min·nimʹ (“strings”; Ps 150:4), keliʹ neʹvel (‘instrument of the string type’ or “stringed sort”; 1Ch 16:5; Ps 71:22), neʹvel ʽa·sohrʹ (“an instrument of ten strings,” ʽa·sohrʹ being linked with a word meaning “ten”; Ps 33:2; 144:9), neghi·nohthʹ (related to a verb meaning “play a stringed instrument”; superscriptions of Ps 4, 6, 54, 55, 61, 67, 76), and pesan·te·rinʹ (understood to mean a “stringed instrument” of triangular shape; Da 3:5, 7, 10, 15).​—See HARP.