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” or “beautiful to-be-listened-to instruments” (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” (NRSVue) 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 NRSVue). 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 (Psalm 92:3)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 92:3:

  • Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
    “singing a song with the instrument of ten strings
    with a good singing of harp.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
  • Newari:
    “It is good to tell of Your ever merciful faithful love every morning,
    and to play stringed instruments and the lute,
    and to proclaim both day and night how trustworthy You are.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon:
    “with playing instruments which has strings.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Laarim:
    “we sing a song with the harp that has ten strings,
    and we sing a song with a harp.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
  • Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
    “na ya nyuzi kumi, na zeze,
    na mvumo mzuri wa malimba.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
  • English:
    “accompanied by musicians playing harps that have ten strings,
    and by the sounds made by a lyre.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Psalm 92:1 - 92:3

In verse 1 Yahweh is spoken of in the third person in line a and addressed in the second person in line b; for consistency Good News Translation uses the second person in both lines.

The psalmist begins on a note of joy; it is good (that is, either enjoyable or right) to praise Yahweh. Instead of the impersonal form of the declaration (It is good to give thanks), a personal form may be better: “It is good (or, right) for people (or, me) to give thanks….” In languages which require an explicit object for giving thanks, it may be possible to say “… I give you thanks for the good things you have done.”

In verse 1b to thy name means “in honor of you” (see 5.11); for Most High see 7.17. The two verbs give thanks and sing are the same ones used in 7.17a-b. The occasion for such joyful praise was probably the daily services or the annual festivals in the Temple. The expression sing praises to thy name may also be rendered “sing praise to you” or “sing and say that you are great.”

For steadfast love in verse 2a, see 5.7, and for faithfulness in verse 2b, see 36.5. In some languages steadfast love and faithfulness require an object such as “declare every morning that you always love us, and every night that you are faithful to us.”

It is not entirely clear in verse 3 whether two or three instruments are named; in verse 3a the Hebrew is “upon a ten (-stringed instrument) and upon a harp,” which Revised Standard Version translates as the lute and the harp. It is probable, however, that the meaning is “a ten-stringed harp” (New Jerusalem Bible; see New American Bible, New English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, New International Version); see the terms in 33.2. In verse 3b melody translates the word that is used in the sense of “meditation” in 19.14 and appears as a musical term in 9.16. New Jerusalem Bible translates it here as vocal music, “with voice and lyre together”; most take it to refer to the instrument’s sound. Verse 3 shows the manner in which verse 2 is to be performed, and in some languages it will be necessary to switch the position of the two verses, placing verse 3 before verse 2.

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 .