Aramaic word · H7030

קַתָרֹס

kitaros

lyre

Three stringed instruments. Qatrôs is the Greek kitharis/kithara, a lyre with a sound box. Pĕsantērîn is the Greek psaltērion, a plucked stringed instrument (harp or zither type). Sabbĕkāʾ is the Greek sambykē, a small triangular harp with a high pitch.

A Biblical Aramaic word, from the parts of the Old Testament written in Aramaic. Why Aramaic?

Appears 4 times in 4 verses of the Aramaic of the Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) a musical instrument

1a) probably the lyre or zither

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 Daniel 3:5

Range of meaning

Three stringed instruments. Qatrôs is the Greek kitharis/kithara, a lyre with a sound box. Pĕsantērîn is the Greek psaltērion, a plucked stringed instrument (harp or zither type). Sabbĕkāʾ is the Greek sambykē, a small triangular harp with a high pitch.

Against the English

English versions shuffle 'harp', 'lyre', 'zither', 'trigon' and 'psaltery' among these words with little agreement. KJV's 'sackbut' for sabbĕkāʾ names a Renaissance trombone, a brass instrument, for what was a stringed one.

How it drifted

The KJV of 1611 matched the Aramaic words to similar-sounding English and European instruments: sabbĕkāʾ became 'sackbut', and psaltērion 'psaltery'. These instruments are unfamiliar to modern readers and do not match the ancient ones.

Used elsewhere in the period

Kitharis appears as early as Homer. Psaltērion is attested in classical Greek from about the 4th century BC. Ancient writers (e.g. Strabo, Athenaeus) call the sambykē a foreign, 'barbarian' instrument, so the word may have come into Greek from a Near Eastern language rather than the other way round.

From the study of Daniel 3:7

Range of meaning

Plucked stringed instruments. The first is a large lyre with a sound box (Greek kithara/kitharis). The second is a harp or board zither played by plucking (Greek psaltērion). Together with sumponyah in the other lists, these are Greek loanwords in Daniel's Aramaic.

Against the English

KJV uses 'harp … psaltery'. BSB uses 'zither … harp'. ESV and NASB use 'lyre … harp/psaltery'. Exact identification is uncertain, and versions map the Aramaic names onto English instruments differently, so the same Aramaic word can be 'zither' in one version and 'lyre' in another.

Used elsewhere in the period

Greek kitharis appears from Homer onward, and psaltērion is attested in classical Greek writers. Greeks were present in the Near East well before Alexander: Babylonian ration tablets list Ionian craftsmen, and Greek mercenaries served Near Eastern kings. In Histories 26.1, Polybius describes the Seleucid king Antiochus IV dancing to the symphōnia.

Where it appears

Daniel · 4

  1. Daniel 3:5 קַתְר֨וֹס zither

    As soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up.

    Here: A loanword from Greek kitharis/kithara, a plucked lyre with a wooden sound box. It is closer to a 'lyre' than to a modern 'harp' or 'zither'.

  2. Daniel 3:7 קַתְר֤וֹס zither

    Therefore, as soon as all the people heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, and all kinds of music, the people of every nation and language would fall down and worship the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

    Here: A loanword from Greek kitharis/kithara, a large lyre with a sound box. This is not the modern concert harp.

  3. Daniel 3:10 קַתְר֨וֹס zither

    You, O king, have issued a decree that everyone who hears the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music must fall down and worship the golden statue,

  4. Daniel 3:15 קַתְר֣וֹס zither

    Now when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the statue I have made, very good. But if you refuse to worship, you will be thrown at once into the blazing fiery furnace. Then what god will be able to deliver you from my hands?”

    Here: A loanword from Greek kitharis/kithara, the Greek lyre (the source of English 'guitar'). One of the Greek words in the list.

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