lyre

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

  • Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016: pangwe (a musical instrument that is made from a hollow tube filled with pellets or small stones to create a rain-like sound) or “five stringed instrument” (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “guitar” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Newari: “sitar ” (source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Adilabad Gondi: chondka (source: Adilabad Gondi Back-Translation)
  • Nyakyusa-Ngonde: marimba (source: Nyakyusa-Ngonde back translation)

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 lyre consisted of a sound box out of the ends or sides of which projected two arms. The arms supported a crosspiece. Strings descended from the crosspiece over the sound box. As with the nevel, the number of strings could vary. Their varying thickness and tension gave the instrument a range of notes. The lyre was normally made of wood. The strings were made of animal intestines (perhaps from sheep).

Usage: The strings were normally plucked with the fingers. The kinor in particular is frequently depicted as an instrument that accompanied singing.

Job 21:12: For the stringed instrument (kinor in Hebrew) accompanying the tambourine, French Common Language Version has “guitar” and the French La Bible de Jérusalem has “zither,” which seems to be an instrument used in 1 Samuel 10:5. The first line of this verse may also be rendered “The children sing as people play the tambourine and the lyre.” In some languages these instruments will be a local drum and a stringed instrument; the latter may be a guitar. If no instruments can be found to render any of the instruments in this verse, the translator may have to express the whole verse differently; for example, “The children dance and sing and make joyful sounds/music.”

The identity of the instrument called sabka’ in Aramaic in Daniel (Hebrew) is uncertain. New Revised Standard Version, updated edition renders it “trigon,” which is a small triangular lyre-type instrument with four strings. Probably trigon is technically correct, but it is unknown to the average English reader. Good News Translation has attempted to find a better-known equivalent with “zither,” but the zither has far too many strings (over thirty). Some translations use “lyre” for sabka’ and render the Aramaic word qathros before it as “zither”. Revised English Bible has “triangle,” but most readers will wrongly identify that as a percussion instrument. Common English Version avoids the problem by rendering only the first three instruments in the list and grouping the last three together, including sabka’ as follows: “Trumpets, flutes, harps, and all other kinds of musical instruments.”

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

Quoted with permission.

complete verse (Psalm 49:4)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 49:4:

  • Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
    “I incline my ear to tradition,
    with a harp I will explain clearly my proverb.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
  • Newari:
    “I will give my ear to religious instructions.
    and I will interpret them by playing the lute.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon:
    “I will-listen to the proverbs and I will-explain their meaning while I play the harp.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Laarim:
    “I will hear the parable,
    then I will explain it by a word which is hidden.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
  • Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
    “Nasikiliza vizuri ya mithali,
    wakati napiga zeze, nitayaeleza.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
  • English:
    “I think about proverbs/wise sayings, and while I play my harp, I explain what they mean.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Psalm 49:3 - 49:4

In verse 3 Good News Translation has reversed the two lines, since words are meant to follow thoughts. The psalmist promises to speak wisdom, and his “thoughts will be clear” (Good News Translation).

What the psalmist is writing about is not philosophical knowledge but practical, everyday wisdom. To speak wisdom must be rendered in some languages as “I will speak words that will make you wise.”

Meditation of my heart: the word translated meditation occurs only here in the Old Testament; the related verb “to meditate” is used in 1.2 (see comments there).

The word translated understanding carries the idea of skill; New Jerusalem Bible and Bible en français courant have “good sense”; New Jerusalem Bible “my speech is full of insight.” Another possible version is “understanding guides my thoughts.”

Verse 3 is a clear case of heightening movement from line a to line b, in which meditation of my heart steps up the thought from the physical mouth of line a. The intensification may be made explicit in English by rendering, for example, “I will not only speak words of wisdom, but what is more, my deepest thoughts will be clearly expressed.” Translators may prefer to follow the logical order of thoughts before words, as Good News Translation has done; however, this is not the concern of the psalmist.

In verse 4 proverb and riddle are parallel. The Hebrew word translated proverb is mashal (see Howard A. Hatton, The Bible Translator, vol. 27, no. 2, April 1976, pages 224-230). Proverbs are sometimes called “wise sayings” or “wisdom words of the ancestors.” One can also translate verse 4a “I will ponder what I must teach.”

The psalmist promises to explain the proverb, calling it my riddle. Revised Standard Version solve does not mean that he, the psalmist, is going to discover for himself, for the first time, the meaning of his proverb. Rather, he is going to explain it to his listeners. Anderson suggests “perplexing problem” as the meaning of the latter word here.

Only here in the Old Testament is instruction given to the accompaniment of music, although in places prophetic utterance was so delivered (see 1 Sam 10.5; 2 Kgs 3.15). To the music of the lyre may be rendered in some languages “as I play on the stringed instrument called harp” or simply “as I play on the stringed instrument.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .