Hebrew word · H5058

נְגִינָה

binginot

music

Music played on strings, or a song so performed. In other settings it can mean a mocking song (Lam 3:14; Ps 69:12, where drunkards make Job or the psalmist their 'song'). Its plural appears in Psalm superscriptions, 'bineginot', meaning 'with stringed instruments' (Ps 4, 6, 54, 55, 61, 67, 76).

Appears 14 times in 14 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) music, song, taunt song

1a) music (of stringed instrument)

1b) song

1b1) taunting or mocking song

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 Isaiah 38:20

Range of meaning

Music played on strings, or a song so performed. In other settings it can mean a mocking song (Lam 3:14; Ps 69:12, where drunkards make Job or the psalmist their 'song'). Its plural appears in Psalm superscriptions, 'bineginot', meaning 'with stringed instruments' (Ps 4, 6, 54, 55, 61, 67, 76).

Against the English

KJV/WEB 'my songs ... to/with stringed instruments' and ESV 'my music on stringed instruments' bring out both sides. NIV drops the 'my'. BSB 'songs on stringed instruments' also drops 'my', losing the hint that these are Hezekiah's own compositions.

Used elsewhere in the period

The closest parallel is Habakkuk 3:19, a prayer-psalm that ends 'for the director, on my stringed instruments' (binginotay), the same word with the same 'my'. This suggests a standard way for a psalm to close with a performance note. Psalm 6 is headed 'bineginot' and argues, like Isa 38:18, that the dead cannot praise God (Ps 6:5).

From the study of Psalm 69:12

Range of meaning

Music played on stringed instruments, or a song sung to strings. It comes from the verb nāḡan, "to pluck strings", used of David playing the lyre in 1 Samuel 16:16–23. The word can mean a lament or song of praise, an instrumental direction in psalm headings ("with stringed instruments", Psalms 4, 6, 54, 55, 61, 67, 76), or, when the sufferer is the subject of the song, a mocking song.

Against the English

KJV, BSB, WEB and NASB have "song". ESV turns it into a verb ("make songs about me"). The supplied contextual gloss is "taunt songs". YLT reads it as a verb, "play on instruments", which is a misreading: the form is a plural noun linked to the following words ("songs of"). The plain "song" loses two things: the lyre music of a party, and the fact that these are mocking songs.

Used elsewhere in the period

Job 30:9: "And now I have become their song (nəḡînāṯām); I am a byword to them." Lamentations 3:14: "I have become the laughingstock of all my people, their song (nəḡînāṯām) all day long." Lamentations 3:63 uses the related word manḡînâ ("I am their mocking song"). Isaiah 38:20 and Psalm 77:6 (Hebrew 77:7) use it in a good sense. Drinking and stringed music go together in Isaiah 5:12 ("lyre and harp ... and wine at their feasts"), Isaiah 24:9 and Amos 6:5–6.

From the study of Psalm 77:6

Range of meaning

From nāgan, "to play a stringed instrument" (David playing the lyre for Saul, 1 Sam 16:23). It means string music or a song played on strings. It can also mean a mocking song sung about someone (Job 30:9; Lam 3:14, 63; Ps 69:12). In psalm headings, binginot means "with stringed instruments" (Pss 4, 6, 54, 55, 61, 67, and Ps 76, the psalm just before this one).

Against the English

"Song" is fine, but it loses the picture of music played on a lyre or harp. YLT's "my music" keeps it.

Used elsewhere in the period

Lamentations 3:14 "I have become... their song (nəgînātām)" uses the mocking sense. Job 35:10 speaks of God "who gives songs in the night," and Ps 42:8 says "by night his song is with me." Both use a different word (zəmirōt / šîr) but share the idea of songs in the night.

Where it appears

Job · 1

  1. Job 30:9 נְגִינָתָ֣ם taunt song their

    And now they mock me in song; I have become a byword among them.

Psalms · 9

  1. Psalm 69:12 וּ֝נְגִינ֗וֹת and taunt songs of

    Those who sit at the gate mock me, and I am the song of drunkards.

    Here: "And the songs of": songs played on a lyre or harp. The word is a noun, not a verb, and the line leaves out "I am" or "they make." In the context it means mocking songs, as in Job 30:9 and Lamentations 3:14, where a sufferer becomes people's negînâ.

  2. Psalm 77:6 נְגִינָתִ֗י song my

    At night I remembered my song; in my heart I mused, and my spirit pondered:

    Here: "My song," literally "my playing": a song sung to a stringed instrument. Most likely the songs of praise he used to sing in better times. The memory of them now sharpens the pain of the present.

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 38:20 וּנְגִנוֹתַ֧י and songs my

    The LORD will save me; we will play songs on stringed instruments all the days of our lives in the house of the LORD.

    Here: "And my string music": the music that belongs to Hezekiah, either his own compositions (like this psalm, called his "writing" in v. 9) or the instruments he plays them on. The same word heads several Psalms ("with stringed instruments").

Lamentations · 2

  1. Lamentations 3:14 נְגִינָתָ֖ם taunt song their

    I am a laughingstock to all my people; they mock me in song all day long.

  2. Lamentations 5:14 מִנְּגִינָתָֽם׃ from music their

    The elders have left the city gate; the young men have stopped their music.

Habakkuk · 1

  1. Habakkuk 3:19 בִּנְגִינוֹתָֽי׃ with stringed instruments my

    GOD the Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like those of a deer; He makes me walk upon the heights! For the choirmaster. With stringed instruments.

    Here: 'On/with my stringed instruments': accompaniment on plucked strings such as lyres. Psalm headings have the plain form 'on strings' (Ps 4; 6; 54; 55; 61; 67; 76). The 'my' here is unusual and its meaning is debated.

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