Cymbal

The cymbal is a struck percussion instrument woven through the worship life of ancient Israel. Its appearances cluster around three settings: the bronze material of the instrument, the procession that brought the ark into David's tent, and the standing temple service the Chronicler describes in detail. A pair of post-exilic dedications and a single Pauline simile complete the canonical picture.

Bronze Instruments

The cymbal is named for its metal. When David organized the singers for the ark's procession, the chief musicians were "[appointed] with cymbals of bronze to sound aloud" (1 Chronicles 15:19). Paul reaches for the same image when he wants a metaphor for words emptied of love: "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but don't have love, I have become sounding bronze, or a clanging cymbal" (1 Corinthians 13:1). The instrument and the simile share their substance.

Bringing Up the Ark

The cymbal first enters the narrative in the procession David led to bring the ark to Jerusalem. The earlier scene at Nacon's threshing-floor records how "David and all the house of Israel played before Yahweh with all [instruments made of] fir-wood, and with harps, and with psalteries, and with timbrels, and with castanets, and with cymbals" (2 Samuel 6:5). The Chronicler, recounting the same procession, repeats the catalogue: "David and all Israel played before God with all their might, even with songs, and with harps, and with psalteries, and with timbrels, and with cymbals, and with trumpets" (1 Chronicles 13:8).

When David appoints the Levitical singers for the second, successful attempt, cymbals stand inside the formal commission: "David spoke to the chief of the Levites to appoint their brothers the singers, with instruments of music, psalteries and harps and cymbals, sounding aloud and lifting up the voice with joy" (1 Chronicles 15:16). The procession reaches Jerusalem with "shouting, and with sound of the cornet, and with trumpets, and with cymbals, sounding aloud with psalteries and harps" (1 Chronicles 15:28). After the ark is set in its tent, Asaph himself is stationed there "with cymbals, sounding aloud" (1 Chronicles 16:5), while Heman and Jeduthun are placed with "trumpets and cymbals for those who should sound aloud, and [with] instruments for the songs of God" (1 Chronicles 16:42).

Temple Service

David's organizational work in 1 Chronicles 25 carries the cymbal forward into the standing service of the temple: "Moreover David and the captains of the host set apart for the service certain of the sons of Asaph, and of Heman, and of Jeduthun, who should prophesy with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals" (1 Chronicles 25:1). The same chapter sums up the assignment: "All these were under the hands of their father for song in the house of Yahweh, with cymbals, psalteries, and harps, for the service of the house of God; Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman being under the order of the king" (1 Chronicles 25:6).

When Solomon's temple is dedicated, this Davidic arrangement is what sounds: "the Levites who were the singers, all of them, even Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and their brothers, arrayed in fine linen, with cymbals and psalteries and harps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them a hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets" (2 Chronicles 5:12). The combined ensemble is what fills the house: "when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised Yahweh, [saying,] For he is good; for his loving-kindness [endures] forever; that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of Yahweh" (2 Chronicles 5:13). Hezekiah's reform later restores the same instrumentation, "set the Levites in the house of Yahweh with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps, according to the commandment of David, and of Gad the king's seer, and Nathan the prophet" (2 Chronicles 29:25). The Psalter closes its final praise on the same note: "Praise him with loud cymbals: Praise him with high sounding cymbals" (Psalm 150:5).

Post-Exilic Dedications

After the return, the cymbal reappears at two ceremonial moments. At the laying of the second temple's foundation, "the builders laid the foundation of the temple of Yahweh, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise Yahweh, after the order of David king of Israel" (Ezra 3:10). The phrase "after the order of David" deliberately ties the new ceremony to the older Levitical pattern. When Nehemiah dedicates the rebuilt wall, the same instruments come down out of storage: "they sought the Levites out of all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem, to keep the dedication with gladness, both with thanksgivings, and with singing, with cymbals, psalteries, and with harps" (Nehemiah 12:27).

The Maccabean rededication of the altar joins the same pattern. After Judas cleansed the sanctuary, "in the same it was dedicated anew with canticles, and harps, and lutes, and cymbals" (1 Maccabees 4:54), and Simon's later entry into the citadel was kept "with thanksgiving, and branches of palm trees, and harps, and cymbals, and stringed instruments, and hymns, and songs, because the great enemy was destroyed out of Israel" (1 Maccabees 13:51).