Psaltery

See MUSIC.

[MUSIC]

See HARP, and MUSIC.\par

Psaltery. This was a stringed instrument of music to accompany the voice. The Hebrew, nabel or nebel is so rendered, in the Authorized Version, in all passages where if occurs, except in Isa 5:12; Isa 14:11; Isa 22:24, marg.; Amo 5:23; Amo 6:6, where it is translated viol. The ancient viol was a six-stringed guitar. In the Prayer Book version of the Psalms, the Hebrew word is rendered "lute."

This instrument resembled the guitar, but was superior in tone, being larger, and having a convex back, somewhat like the vertical section of a gourd, or more nearly resembling that of a pear. These three instruments, the psaltery or sautry, the viol and lute, are frequently associated in the old English poets and were clearly instruments resembling each other though still different. The Greek psalterium (psalterion), from which our word is derived, denotes an instrument played with the fingers instead of a plectrum or quill, the verb being used of twanging the bow-string.

It is impossible to say positively with what instrument the nebel of the Hebrew exactly corresponded, From the fact that nebel in Hebrew also signifies a wine-bottle or skin, it has been conjectured that the term, when applied to a musical instrument, denotes a kind of bagpipe. The psalteries of David were made of cypress, 2Sa 6:5, those of Solomon of algum or almug trees. 2Ch 9:11. Among the instruments of the band, which played before Nebuchadnezzar’s golden image on the plains of Dura, we again meet with the psaltery. Dan 3:6; Dan 3:10; Dan 3:15, Chaldaic, pesanterin.

A stringed instrument played by the hand to accompany the voice, Hebrew nebel. In Psa 33:2 omit "and," translated "sing with the psaltery an instrument of ten strings." Josephus (Ant. 7:12, sec. 3) mentions that ordinarily it had 12 strings; nebel means literally, a leather bottle, the psaltery was named so from its shape (Psa 92:3; Psa 144:9). The king, or, "lyre," had ten strings, but was played with a quill, not with the hand.

The principal word used is nebel, and it is supposed to refer to some unknown form of stringed instrument used to accompany the voice. It is at times mentioned along with the harp. 1Sa 10:5; Psa 33:2; Psa 144:9; Psa 150:3; etc. The same word is also translated VIOL in Isa 5:12; Isa 14:11; Amo 5:23; Amo 6:5. In Dan 3:5-15 the word is pesanterin.

See HARP AND LYRE:

PSALTERY.—See Music, etc., § 4.

(Latin: psalterium)

Term ordinarily applied to collections of the Psalms of David as collected and used for the recitation of the Divine Office. There are two collections, the Roman Psaltery and the Gallican Psaltery. The former is the first translation of the Vetus Itala by Saint Jerome which was finished, c.385; the latter is a later translation, also by Saint Jerome. This translation found a readier acceptance in France and finally in the universal Church than the first. It is the psalter now in use in all churches excepting Saint Peter’s, Rome. The translation was made, c.393.

The word psaltery is also applied to a musical instrument used in the sacred chants. It is a stringed instrument similar to a harp, and the music is produced by strumming the strings either with the fingers or a plectron.

sôl´tẽr-i. See MUSIC.