large lyre / harp

The musical instrument that is most often translated as “harp” or “large lyre” in English is translated in the following ways:

  • Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016: “two stringed instrument” (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “instruments which have strings to praise you,” “beautiful to-be-listened-to instruments,” or kudyapi (source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Newari: sarəngi (source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Adilabad Gondi: karnaat (source: Adilabad Gondi Back-Translation)
  • Nyakyusa-Ngonde: zeze (source: Nyakyusa-Ngonde back translation)
  • Mairasi: kecapi (“like a ukulele”) (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Natügu: “ukulele” (source: Brenda Boerger in Open Theology 2016, p. 179ff. )

In the UBS Helps for Translators‘ Human-made Things in the Bible (original title: The Works of Their Hands: Man-made Things in the Bible) it says the following:

Description: The exact identification of the nevel is very problematic. Some take it to be a kind of harp. The harp consisted of a neck projecting out of a soundbox. Strings were stretched from the extremity of the neck down its length and into the sound box. The body of the harp was made of wood and its strings of animal intestines (perhaps from sheep). The number of strings varied.

Others place the nevel in the category of lyres, where the strings are stretched over top of and parallel to the soundbox. While this is the interpretation preferred here, we will discuss the harp-type of instrument, since the identification is problematic and many translations have preferred “harp” for nevel.

Usage: The strings were plucked either with the fingers or with a thin piece of ivory or metal to give a resonating sound, probably in a lower register than that made by the kinor.

Translation: In several Psalms (33.2; 92.3; 144.9), the nevel is linked to the Hebrew word ‘asor, which could indicate it was “ten-stringed.”

Some degree of cultural adaptation must be made in the translation of these stringed instruments since cultures differ from each other in the shape, the number of strings, and the function of their instruments. Translators will have to select an equivalent instrument in the receptor language. In most passages the most accurate translation for nevel will be “guitar” or some equivalent medium-sized stringed instrument on which the strings are stretched over a sound box and are plucked.

In those passages where nevel and kinor appear together it is recommended that the translator use an instrument that can vary in size and then render the two words as “large and small X,” for example, “large and small guitars.” Alternately, it may be possible to select two stringed instruments that are similar in construction but different in size, for example, “guitar and lute.” It is also possible to say “large and small stringed instruments” or to combine the two, saying “stringed instruments.”

Psalms 33:2: “Praise the LORD with the lyre” (New Revised Standard Version, updated edition) contains two major translation problems. The first problem is that in many languages, the phrase “with the lyre” must be changed into a verb phrase or clause; for example, the whole line may be rendered “Praise the LORD by playing music on the lyre” or “Make music with the lyre, and praise the LORD.” The second problem, which applies also to the second line of this verse, is the terms to be used for the musical instruments here. In languages in which there are several stringed instruments, translators may use one of the smaller ones for kinor (“lyre”) and a larger one for nevel (“harp” in New Revised Standard Version, updated edition). In languages where there is little or no choice, they should use the known local stringed instrument for the kinor, and a more generic expression for the nevel. Where there are no known stringed instruments, it will often be necessary to say “small instruments with strings” for kinor and “large instruments with strings” for nevel.

Harp (source: Knowles, revised by Bass (c) British and Foreign Bible Society 1994)

Quoted with permission.

complete verse (Amos 6:5)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Amos 6:5:

  • Kupsabiny: “You are singing songs of folly and pluck on lyres
    preparing things for songs
    while copying David.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “You play the harp like David,
    and you make a quick rhythm on the instrument.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “You (plur.) are-to-be-pitied who compose songs while playing harps and fond of making (much) music through instruments, like David.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

David

The name that is transliterated as “David” in English means “beloved.” (Source: Cornwall / Smith 1997 )

In Spanish Sign Language it is translated with the sign signifying king and a sling (referring to 1 Samuel 17:49 and 2 Samuel 5:4). (Source: John Elwode in The Bible Translator 2008, p. 78ff. )


“Elizabeth” in Spanish Sign Language, source: Sociedad Bíblica de España

In German Sign Language it is only the sling. (See here ).


“David” in German Sign Language (source )

For more information on translations of proper names with sign language see Sign Language Bible Translations Have Something to Say to Hearing Christians .

The (Protestant) Mandarin Chinese transliteration of “David” is 大卫 (衛) / Dàwèi which carries an additional meaning of “Great Protector.”

Click or tap here to see a short video clip about David (source: Bible Lands 2012)

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: David .

Translation commentary on Amos 6:5

Who sing idle songs to the sound (Hebrew: upon the mouth of) of the harp (or: lute) and like David invent for themselves instruments of music/You like to compose songs, as David did, and play them on harps. Translations of this verse differ very much because the Hebrew is not clear. It is easier if we start with the second part of this sentence: like David invent for themselves instruments of music. Many translations (Revised Standard Version, New English Bible, The Translator’s Old Testament, Dhorme, Bible de Jérusalem) translate this literally, but not many commentators think that is the right meaning because it makes no sense either within this paragraph or in the wider historical context of the Old Testament.

For that reason, the great majority of scholars have proposed very minor changes of the Hebrew. Not all scholars would propose exactly the same change, but all give a common understanding of the text, as in Smith-Goodspeed: “and compose songs for themselves like David,” Moffatt: “composing airs like David himself” and Good News Translation: You like to compose songs, as David did. This meaning should be translated in spite of the minor changes in the Hebrew that are involved.

In the first part of the Hebrew verse, only the meaning “to the sound of (upon the mouth of) the lute” is sure. The precise meaning of the Hebrew verb (which is found only here in the Old Testament) is not clear. No definite solution can be offered here, but all the various meanings proposed for the word involve the meaning of “to sing” or “to play,” and it seems safe to use one of these, as in Good News Translation: and play them on harps.

Good News Translation has changed the order of the two halves of the verse since composing songs normally precedes their singing or playing. This change would be helpful in many languages.

Invent/compose. Some languages have no special term for composing music. In some situations the nearest idea is “improvising”; or it may be necessary to translate “you like to sing new songs, which nobody sang before, and play them on harps.”

Harps. See 5.23.

Quoted with permission from de Waard, Jan & Smalley, William A. A Handbook on Amos. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1979. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .