TABRET (see art. Taber) is AV [Note: Authorized Version.] tr. [Note: translate or translation.] of tôph in [Gen 31:27], [1Sa 10:5]; [1Sa 18:6], [Isa 5:12]; [Isa 24:8]; [Isa 30:32], [Jer 31:4], [Eze 28:13]. The same Heb. word is tr. [Note: translate or translation.] ‘timbrel’ in [Exo 15:20], [Jdg 11:34], [2Sa 6:5], [1Ch 13:8], [Job 21:12], [Psa 81:2]; [Psa 149:3]; [Psa 150:4]. It might have been well to drop both ‘timbrel’ and ‘tabret,’ neither of which conveys any clear sense to a modern ear, and adopt some such rendering as ‘tambourine’ or ‘hand-drum’. The AV [Note: Authorized Version.] rendering of [Job 17:6] ‘aforetime I was as a tabret,’ has arisen from a confusion of tôpheth ‘spitting’ with tôph ‘tambourine.’ The words mean ‘I am become one to be spit on in the face’ (RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘an open abhorring’).
