Harp

The harp is the stringed instrument of music in Scripture, sounding from Jubal in the line of Cain (Ge 4:21) to the throne-room of the Lamb (Re 5:8). It belongs to the family of plucked strings — a three-string lyre in the older notices, a ten-string psaltery in the Psalter — and is named beside the timbrel, the pipe, the trumpet, and the cymbal in scenes of praise, mourning, prophecy, and feast. Almug-wood made it; David's hand mastered it; the Levites guilded it; the captives hung it on the willows; and John heard it played by "harpers harping with their harps" before the throne (Re 14:2).

A Stringed Instrument of Music

The harp belongs to the broader family of stringed instruments. Hezekiah's vow names them in the temple — "we will sing my songs with stringed instruments All the days of our life in the house of Yahweh" (Isa 38:20) — and Habakkuk closes his prayer in the same key: "For the Chief Musician, on my stringed instruments" (Hab 3:19). Ezekiel hears the harp through the figure of one who "can play well on an instrument" (Eze 33:32). A psaltery "of ten strings" stands beside the harp at Ps 33:2, Ps 92:3, Ps 144:9, and Ps 150:4, while the lyre with its three-string heritage echoes in the women's song after Goliath, when they meet Saul "with timbrels, with joy, and with instruments of music" (1Sa 18:6).

Originated with Jubal

The instrument's lineage in Scripture begins early. "His brother's name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and pipe" (Ge 4:21). Long after Jubal, Solomon's fleets brought timber for fresh instruments: "the king made of the almug-trees pillars for the house of Yahweh, and for the king's house, harps also and psalteries for the singers: there came no such almug-trees, nor were seen, to this day" (1Ki 10:12). Almug pillars and almug harps come from a single shipment.

David's Hand on the Harp

David is named first as the harp's master player. Saul's servants commend him: "seek out a man who is a skillful player on the harp: and it will come to pass, when the evil spirit from God is on you, that he will play with his hand, and you will be well" (1Sa 16:16). Performance follows the prescription: "when the [evil] spirit from God was on Saul, that David took the harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him" (1Sa 16:23). On the next day "an evil spirit from God came mightily on Saul, and he prophesied in the midst of the house: and David played with his hand, as he did day by day. And Saul had his spear in his hand" (1Sa 18:10) — the harp and the spear in the same room. Earlier, the same association of harp with prophecy meets David's anointing: a band of prophets "coming down from the high place with a psaltery, and a timbrel, and a pipe, and a harp, before them; and they will be prophesying" (1Sa 10:5). Elisha later asks for "a minstrel," and "when the minstrel played, that the hand of Yahweh came upon him" (2Ki 3:15).

Used in Worship

David's harp moves from the king's chamber to the sanctuary. When the ark is brought up, "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" (2Sa 6:5). David then appoints the Levitical guilds — Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun — to handle them: "Asaph the chief, and second to him Zechariah, Jeiel, and Shemiramoth, and Jehiel, and Mattithiah, and Eliab, and Benaiah, and Obed-edom, and Jeiel, with psalteries and with harps; and Asaph with cymbals, sounding aloud" (1Ch 16:5); "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" (1Ch 15:16); "four thousand were doorkeepers; and four thousand praised Yahweh with the instruments which I made, [said David], to praise using them" (1Ch 23:5). The harp here is not solo work — it is choir, orchestra, and prophecy fused.

The handing-down is explicit. "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" (1Ch 25:1). Jeduthun's six sons came under his hand "with the harp, who prophesied in giving thanks and praising Yahweh" (1Ch 25:3). All of them "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" (1Ch 25:6). The roll comes to "288" trained musicians (1Ch 25:7).

At the dedication of Solomon's temple, "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" (2Ch 5:12); and "when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking Yahweh; and 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" (2Ch 5:13).

The harp returns at the great reforms. After the victory over Ammon and Moab, "they came to Jerusalem with psalteries and harps and trumpets to the house of Yahweh" (2Ch 20:28). Hezekiah "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; for the commandment was of Yahweh by his prophets" (2Ch 29:25); "when the burnt-offering began, the song of Yahweh began also, and the trumpets, together with the instruments of David king of Israel" (2Ch 29:27). At the dedication of Jerusalem's new walls under Nehemiah, the Levites came "with gladness, both with thanksgivings, and with singing, with cymbals, psalteries, and with harps" (Ne 12:27), Ezra at their head, "with the musical instruments of David the man of God; and Ezra the scribe was before them" (Ne 12:36).

The Psalter answers in kind. "Give thanks to Yahweh with the harp: Sing praises to him with the psaltery of ten strings" (Ps 33:2). "Then I will go to the altar of God, To God my exceeding joy; And on the harp I will praise you, O God, my God" (Ps 43:4). "I will incline my ear to a parable: I will open my dark saying on the harp" (Ps 49:4). "Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake the dawn" (Ps 57:8) — repeated at Ps 108:2. "I will also praise you with the psaltery, [Even] your truth, O my God: To you I will sing praises with the harp, O you Holy One of Israel" (Ps 71:22). "Raise a song, and bring here the timbrel, The pleasant harp with the psaltery" (Ps 81:2). "With an instrument of ten strings, and with the psaltery; With a solemn sound on the harp" (Ps 92:3). "Sing praises to Yahweh with the harp; With the harp and the voice of melody" (Ps 98:5). "Sing to Yahweh with thanksgiving; Sing praises on the harp to our God" (Ps 147:7). "Let them praise his name in the dance: Let them sing praises to him with timbrel and harp" (Ps 149:3). The book closes with the harp twice in three verses: "Praise him with trumpet sound: Praise him with psaltery and harp" (Ps 150:3); "Praise him with timbrel and dance: Praise him with stringed instruments and pipe" (Ps 150:4).

The wisdom tradition keeps the same memory. Ben Sira commands: "O magnify his name, And give utterance to his praise, With songs of the harp and stringed instruments" (Sir 39:15). Of David he writes, "Stringed instruments and song before the altar [he ordained], To make sweet melody with their sounds" (Sir 47:9). And the verdict on the well-tempered ear: "Pipe and harp make sweet the song, But better than both is a pure tongue" (Sir 40:21).

Neginoth — the Psalm-Title Rubric

Several psalms carry the heading "on stringed instruments" — the Hebrew neginoth, the technical instruction to introduce the harp. "For the Chief Musician; on stringed instruments. A Psalm of David" (Ps 4:1). "For the Chief Musician; on stringed instruments, set to the Sheminith. A Psalm of David" (Ps 6:1). "For the Chief Musician; on stringed instruments. Maschil of David; when the Ziphites came and said to Saul, Does not David hide himself with us?" (Ps 54:1). "For the Chief Musician; on stringed instruments. Maschil of David" (Ps 55:1). The singular form appears at Ps 61:1: "For the Chief Musician; on a stringed instrument. [A Psalm] of David." The rubric also heads Ps 67:1 and Ps 76:1, the latter "A Psalm of Asaph."

In Festivities and on the Road

The harp is also the instrument of feast and farewell. Laban protests that he would have sent Jacob away "with mirth and with songs, with tabret and with harp" (Ge 31:27). Job describes the prosperity of the wicked: "They send forth their little ones like a flock, And their children dance" (Job 21:11); "They sing to the timbrel and harp, And rejoice at the sound of the pipe" (Job 21:12). Isaiah arraigns Jerusalem's banquets, where "the harp and the lute, the tabret and the pipe, and wine, are [in] their feasts; but they do not regard the work of Yahweh, neither have they considered the operation of his hands" (Isa 5:12). To forgotten Tyre the prophet says, "Take a harp, go about the city, you whore that has been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that you may be remembered" (Isa 23:16). And Yahweh's coming stroke on Assyria comes "with [the sound of] tabrets and harps" (Isa 30:32).

In Mourning and on the Willows

When festival shifts to grief, the same instrument turns. "Therefore my harp is [turned] to mourning, And my pipe into the voice of those who weep" (Job 30:31). "The mirth of tabrets ceases, the noise of those who rejoice ends, the joy of the harp ceases" (Isa 24:8). Babylon's exiles know it most sharply: "On the willows in the midst of it We hung up our harps" (Ps 137:2). And Ben Sira gives the rule of season: "[As] music in time of mourning, [so is] unseasonable talk; But stripes and correction are wisdom in every time" (Sir 22:6).

Discordant

Where the harp loses its distinct sound, the figure turns from praise to confusion. Paul presses the analogy: "Even things without life, giving a voice, whether pipe or harp, if they don't give a distinction in the sounds, how will it be known what is piped or harped?" (1Co 14:7).

In Pagan Hands

The harp also stands at the head of Nebuchadnezzar's pagan orchestra: "at what time you⁺ hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, lyre, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music, you⁺ fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up" (Da 3:5). Tyre, sentenced through Ezekiel: "I will cause the noise of your songs to cease; and the sound of your harps will be heard no more" (Eze 26:13).

In John's Apocalyptic Vision

The harp survives the silencings. In heaven, "the four living creatures and the four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints" (Re 5:8). Later John reports, "I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and the voice which I heard [was] as [the voice] of harpers harping with their harps" (Re 14:2). And by the sea of glass stand "those who come off victorious from the beast, and from his image, and from the number of his name, standing by the sea of glass, having harps of God" (Re 15:2). Babylon meanwhile is silenced: "the voice of harpers and minstrels and flute-players and trumpeters will be heard no more at all in you" (Re 18:22). The willow-hung harp of Ps 137 has not stayed mute; it has changed cities.