Hebrew word · H4482

מֵן

beminim

string

Strings, or stringed instruments. The plural minnim occurs clearly here and probably in Psalm 45:8 ('from ivory palaces strings make you glad', though some read minni there as 'from me'). The word's origin is uncertain.

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) string (of harp)

2) (BDB) portion

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Psalm 150:4

Range of meaning

Strings, or stringed instruments. The plural minnim occurs clearly here and probably in Psalm 45:8 ('from ivory palaces strings make you glad', though some read minni there as 'from me'). The word's origin is uncertain. Links to Aramaic or Syriac words for 'thread' or 'hair' have been proposed but are not certain.

Against the English

Most English versions agree on 'strings' or 'stringed instruments'. Nobody knows which instrument, if any single one, is meant.

Used elsewhere in the period

Septuagint χορδαῖς (chordais, 'with strings'); Vulgate in chordis.

From the study of Psalm 45:8

Range of meaning

Most modern scholars and the supplied data read it as the plural of men, 'string', in a rare short form (Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar §87f lists cases where the plural ending -im is shortened to -i), meaning 'strings' or 'stringed instruments'. Compare minnim in Ps 150:4. Older readings: (a) the poetic preposition minni, 'from' (as in Judg 5:14), giving 'from which' or 'whereby'. (b) Minni, a northern kingdom named in Jer 51:27, which a few older interpreters suggested. Few accept this now.

Against the English

Most modern versions: 'stringed instruments', 'harps', 'music of strings'. KJV: 'whereby they have made thee glad', following the Septuagint and Vulgate. In the KJV reading the palaces, or the people in them, gladden the king, and no music is mentioned.

How it drifted

This is a disputed reading, not a drift. The King James Version was following the ancient Greek tradition.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint has ex hōn ('from which'). The Latin Vulgate follows it with ex quibus. Ps 150:4 has minnim alongside the pipe (ugav), clearly meaning instruments.

Where it appears

Psalms · 2

  1. Psalm 45:8 מִנִּ֥י stringed instrument

    All your garments are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia; from palaces of ivory the harps make you glad.

    Here: Most likely 'strings', meaning stringed instruments like harps and lyres (compare minnim in Ps 150:4), written in a rare short plural form. Ancient translators took it as 'from which', which gives the King James Version's 'whereby'.

  2. Psalm 150:4 בְּמִנִּ֥ים with stringed instruments

    Praise Him with tambourine and dancing; praise Him with strings and flute.

    Here: A rare word, found clearly only here and probably in Psalm 45:8 (45:9 in Hebrew). It means 'strings'. It may name the strings themselves or stringed instruments in general, beyond the harp and lyre already named in verse 3.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.