Music

Easton, 1897

Jubal was the inventor of musical instruments (Genesis 4:21). The Hebrews were much given to the cultivation of music. Their whole history and literature afford abundant evidence of this. After the Deluge, the first mention of music is in the account of Laban's interview with Jacob (Genesis 31:27). After their triumphal passage of the Red Sea, Moses and the children of Israel sang their song of deliverance (Exodus 15).

But the period of Samuel, David, and Solomon was the golden age of Hebrew music, as it was of Hebrew poetry. Music was now for the first time systematically cultivated. It was an essential part of training in the schools of the prophets (1 Samuel 10:5; 1 Samuel 19:19-24; 2 Kings 3:15; 1 Chronicles 25:6). There now arose also a class of professional singers (2 Samuel 19:35; Ecclesiastes 2:8). The temple, however, was the great school of music. In the conducting of its services large bands of trained singers and players on instruments were constantly employed (2 Samuel 6:5; 1 Chronicles 15; 1 Chronicles 16; 1 Chronicles 23;1 Chronicles 5; 1 Chronicles 25:1-6).

In private life also music seems to have held an important place among the Hebrews (Ecclesiastes 2:8; Amos 6:4-6; Isaiah 5:11, Isaiah 5:12; Isaiah 24:8, Isaiah 24:9; Psalms 137; Jeremiah 48:33; Luke 15:25).