Pipe

The pipe in the UPDV is a wind instrument that turns up where worship and prophecy do — among a prophetic band coming down from a high place, and in a holy-feast simile of pilgrims climbing toward Yahweh.

With the Prophetic Band

Samuel directs Saul toward a sign that confirms his anointing: "you will meet 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" (1 Sam 10:5). The pipe stands among four instruments at the head of a procession whose musicians are themselves the prophesying group.

The Pilgrim Image

Isaiah's promise after the rod of Assyria turns to feast-song: "You⁺ will have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goes with a pipe to come to the mountain of Yahweh, to the Rock of Israel" (Isa 30:29). The pipe accompanies the worshipper on the way up, and the gladness it figures is the gladness of the holy feast itself.