Lectionary Calendar
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2025
the Week of Proper 11 / Ordinary 16
Attention!
For 10¢ a day you can enjoy StudyLight.org ads
free while helping to build churches and support pastors in Uganda.
Click here to learn more!

Read the Bible

Bahasa Indonesia Sehari-hari

Ayub 21:12

Mereka bernyanyi-nyanyi dengan iringan rebana dan kecapi, dan bersukaria menurut lagu seruling.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Amusements and Worldly Pleasures;   Happiness;   Harp;   Music;   Pleasure;   Rich, the;   Sin;   Timbrel;   Wicked (People);   Worldliness;   Thompson Chain Reference - Harps;   Instruments, Chosen;   Music;   Musical Instruments;   Organs;   Timbrels;   The Topic Concordance - Desire;   Wickedness;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Amusements and Pleasures, Worldly;   Happiness of the Wicked, the;   Music;   Sin;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Organ;   Timbrel;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Music;   Wisdom literature;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Greatness of God;   Hypocrisy;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Music, Instrumental;   Organ;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Music;   Organ;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Job, the Book of;   Organ;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Music and Musical Instruments;   Tabret;   Wealth;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Pipe ;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Organ,;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Dancing;   Pashur;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Music;   Organ;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Hid;   Root;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Music;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Music;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Harp and Lyre;  

Devotionals:

- Every Day Light - Devotion for January 20;  

Parallel Translations

Alkitab Terjemahan Baru
Mereka bernyanyi-nyanyi dengan iringan rebana dan kecapi, dan bersukaria menurut lagu seruling.
Alkitab Terjemahan Lama
Mereka itu bermain rebana dan kecapi dan bersuka-sukaanlah dengan bunyi suling.

Contextual Overview

7 Wherefore do wicked men liue, come to their olde age, and increase in richesse? 8 Their children lyue in their sight, and their generation before their eyes. 9 Their houses are safe from all feare, and the rod of God is not vpon them. 10 Their bullocke gendreth and that not out of time, their cowe calueth and is not vnfruitfull. 11 They sende foorth their children by flockes, & their sonnes [leade the] daunce. 12 They beare with them tabrets and harpes, and reioyce in the sounde of the organs. 13 They spend their dayes in wealthines, but sodainely they go downe to the graue. 14 They say also vnto God: Go from vs, we desire not the knowledge of thy wayes. 15 Who is the almightie that we should serue him? And what profite should we haue if we should pray vnto him? 16 Lo, there is vtterly no goodnesse in their hande, therefore wyll I not haue to do with the counsaile of the vngodly.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Genesis 4:21, Genesis 31:27, Isaiah 5:12, Isaiah 22:13, Amos 6:4-6

Reciprocal: Job 27:14 - children Ecclesiastes 2:8 - musical instruments Isaiah 30:32 - every place Daniel 6:18 - and passed Amos 6:5 - to the

Cross-References

Genesis 17:19
Unto who God sayd: Sara thy wife shall beare thee a sonne in deede, & thou shalt call his name Isahac: and I wyll establishe my couenaunt with hym for an euerlastyng couenaunt [and] with his seede after hym.
Genesis 17:21
But my couenaunt wyl I make with Isahac whiche Sara shall beare vnto thee, euen this tyme twelue moneth.
Genesis 21:7
She sayd also: who would haue sayde vnto Abraham, that Sara shoulde haue geuen chyldren sucke? for I haue borne [him] a sonne in his olde age.
Genesis 21:8
The chylde grewe, and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isahac was weaned.
1 Samuel 8:7
And the Lorde saide vnto Samuel, Heare the voyce of the people in all that they say vnto thee: For they haue not cast thee away, but they haue cast me away, that I should not raigne ouer them.
1 Samuel 8:9
Now therefore hearken vnto their voyce: howbeit yet testifie vnto them, & shewe them the maner of the king that shall raigne ouer them.
Isaiah 46:10
In the beginning of a thing I shewe the ende therof, & I tell before thinges that are not yet come to passe: My deuise standeth stedfastly stablished, and I fulfill all my pleasure.
Hebrews 11:18
To whom it was saide, that in Isaac shall thy seede be called.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

They take the timbrel and harp,.... Not the children, but the parents of them; these took these instruments of music into their hands, and played upon them while their children danced; thus merrily they spent their time: or, as Jarchi and Aben Ezra, they lift up the voice with the tabret and harp; that is, while they played on these with their hands, they sung songs with their mouths; they used both vocal and instrumental music together, to make the greater harmony, and give the greater pleasure, like those in Amos 6:5;

and rejoice at the sound of the organ; a musical instrument, very pleasant and entertaining, from whence it has its name in the Hebrew tongue; but of what form it was cannot be with certainty said; that which we now so call is of later invention, and unknown in those times: probably Job may have respect to Jubal, the inventor of this sort of music, and others of the posterity of Cain before the flood, who practised it, and were delighted in it; in which they were imitated and followed by wicked men after it, and in Job's time, Genesis 4:21.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

They take the timbrel - They have instruments of cheerful music in their dwellings; and this is an evidence that they are not treated as the friends of Job had maintained. Instead of being, as they asserted, overwhelmed with calamity, they are actually happy. They have all that can make them cheerful, and their houses exhibit all that is usually the emblem of contentment and peace. Rosenmuller and Noyes suppose this to mean, “They sing to the timbrel and harp;” that is, “they raise up” (ישׂאו yı̂s'û) “the voice” to accompany the timbrel. Dr. Good renders it, “They rise up to the tabor and harp, and trip merrily to the sound of the pipe.” So Wemyss. It is literally, “They rise up with the tabor;” and the word “voice” may be understood, and the meaning may be that they accompany the timbrel with the voice. The Vulgate and the Septuagint, however, render it, they “Take up the timbrel.” Dr. Good supposes that the allusion is to the modes of dancing; to their raising themselves in an erect position, and then changing their position - advancing and retreating as in alternate dances, and quotes the following exquisite piece of poetry as illustrating it:

“Now pursuing, now retreating,

Now in circling troops they meet;

To brisk notes, in cadence meeting.

Glance their many-twinkling feet.”

Still, it seems to me, that the exact idea has not been expressed. It is this, “They raise, or elevate (ישׂאו yı̂s'û) scil. themselves;” that is, they become exhilarated and excited at the sound of music. It is in their dwellings, and it is one of the indications of joy. Instead of lamentations and wo, as his friends said there would be in such dwellings, Job says that there was there the sound of music and mirth; that they exhilarated themselves, and were happy. On the word rendered “timbrel” (תף tôph) and the word “harp” (כנור kı̂nnôr), see the notes at Isaiah 5:12.

At the sound of the organ - The word “organ” we now apply to an instrument of music which was wholly unknown in the time of Job. With us it denotes an instrument consisting of pipes, which are filled with wind, and of stops touched by the fingers. It is the largest and most harmonious of the wind instruments, and is blown by bellows. That such an instrument was known in the time of Job, is wholly improbable, and it is not probable that it would be used for the purposes here referred to if it were known. Jerome renders it, “organ;” the Septuagint, ψαλμοῦ psalmou, “the sound of a song;” Noyes, “pipe;” Lee, “lyre;” Good and Wemyss, “pipe.” The Hebrew word (עוּגב ûgâb) is derived from עגב âgab - to breathe, to blow; and it is manifest that the reference is to some wind instrument. Various forms of wind instruments were early invented, and this is expressly mentioned as having been early in use. Thus, it is said of Jubal Genesis 4:21, “He was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ” - עוּגב ûgâb. It was probably at first a rude reed or pipe, which came ultimately to be changed to the fife and flute. It is here mentioned merely as an instrument exciting hilarity, and in the mere use of such an instrument there can be nothing improper. Job does not mean, evidently, to complain of it as wrong. He is simply showing that the wicked live in ease and prosperity, and are not subjected to trials and calamities as his friends maintained.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 21:12. They take the timbrel and harp — ישאו yisu, they rise up or lift themselves up, probably alluding to the rural exercise of dancing.

תף toph, which we translate timbrel, means a sort of drum, such as the tom-tom of the Asiatics.

כנור kinnor may mean something of the harp kind.

עוגב ugab, organ, means nothing like the instrument now called the organ, though thus translated both by the Septuagint and Vulgate; it probably means the syrinx, composed of several unequal pipes, close at the bottom, which when blown into at the top, gives a very shrill and lively sound. To these instruments the youth are represented as dancing joyfully. Mr. Good translates: "They trip merrily to the sound of the pipe." And illustrates his translation with the following verse: -

"Now pursuing, now retreating,

Now in circling troops they meet;

To brisk notes in cadence beating,

Glance their many twinkling feet."


The original is intended to convey the true notion of the gambols of the rustic nymphs and swains on festival occasions, and let it be observed that this is spoken of the children of those who say unto God, "Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have if we pray unto him ?" Job 21:14-15. Is it any wonder that the children of such parents should be living to the flesh, and serving the lusts of the flesh? for neither they nor their parents know God, nor pray unto him.


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile