Attributed commentary excerpt
Keil & Delitzsch on 1 Chronicles 15:16
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Commentary on the Old Testament
C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch · 19th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
David gave the princes of the Levites a further charge to appoint singers with musical instruments for the solemn procession, which they accordingly did. שׁיר כּלי, instruments to accompany the song. In Ch1 15:16 three kinds of these are named: נבלים, nablia, ψαλτήρια, which Luther has translated by psalter, corresponds to the Arabic santir, which is an oblong box with a broad bottom and a somewhat convex sounding-board, over which strings of wire are stretched; an instrument something like the cithara. כּנּרות, harps, more properly lutes, as this instrument more resembled our lute than the harp, and corresponded to the Arabic catgut instrument el ‛ûd (l-cûd); cf. Wetzstein in Delitzsch, Isaiah, S. 702, der 2 Aufl., where, however, the statement that the santir is essentially the same as the old German cymbal, vulgo Hackebrett, is incorrect, and calculated to bring confusion into the matter, for the cymbal was an instrument provided with a small bell. מצלתּים, the later word for צלצלים, cymbals, castanets; see on Sa2 6:5. משׁמיעים does not belong to the three before-mentioned instruments (Berth.), but, as is clear from Ch1 15:19, Ch1 15:28, Ch1 16:5, Ch1 16:42, undoubtedly only to מצלתּים (Bttcher, Neue krit. Aehrenlese, iii. S. 223); but the meaning is not "modulating," but "sounding clear or loud," - according to the proper meaning of the word, to make to hear. The infinitive clause וגו להרים belongs to the preceding sentence: "in order to heighten the sound (both of the song and of the instrumental music) to joy," i.e., to the expression of joy. לשׂימחה is frequently used to express festive joy: cf. Ch1 15:25, Ch2 23:18; Ch2 29:30; but also as early as in Sa2 6:12; Sa1 18:6; Jdg 16:23, etc. - In Ch1 15:17, Ch1 15:18 the names of the singers and players are introduced; then in Ch1 15:19-21 they are named in connection with the instruments they played; and finally, in Ch1 15:22-24, the other Levites and priests who took part in the celebration are mentioned. The three chief singers, the Kohathite Heman, the Gershonite Asaph, and the Merarite Ethan, form the first class. See on Ch1 6:33, Ch1 6:39, and Ch1 6:44. To the second class (המּשׁנים, cf. המּשׁנה, Kg2 23:4) belonged thirteen or fourteen persons, for in Ch1 15:21 an Azaziah is named in the last series who is omitted in Ch1 15:18; and it is more probable that his name has been dropped out of Ch1 15:18 than that it came into our text, Ch1 15:21, by an error. In Ch1 15:18 בּן comes in after זכריהוּ by an error or transcription, as we learn from the w before the following name, and from a comparison of Ch1 15:20 and Ch1 15:25. The name יעזיאל is in Ch1 15:20 written עזיאל, Yodh being rejected; and in Ch1 16:5 it is יעיאל, which is probably only a transcriber's error, since יעיאל occurs along with it both in Ch1 15:18 and in Ch1 16:5. The names Benaiah and Maaseiah, which are repeated in Ch1 15:20, have been there transposed. All the other names in vv.18 and 20 coincide. 1 Chronicles 15:19
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