Neginoth
Neg'inoth (נגַינוֹת , neginoth' songs with instrumental accompaniment, SEE NEGINAH; Sept. ὕμνοι; Vulg. hymni) is found in the titles of Ps 4; Ps 6; Ps 54; Ps 55; Ps 67; Ps 76, and the margin of Hab 3:19 (text "stringed instruments"), and there seems but little doubt that it is the general term denoting all stringed instruments whatsoever, whether played with the hand, like the harp and guitar, or with a plectrum. It thus includes all those instruments which in the A.V. are denoted by the special terms "harp," "psaltery" or "viol," "sackbut," as well as by the general descriptions "stringed instruments" (Ps 150:4), "instruments of music" (1Sa 18:6), or, as the margin gives it, "three-stringed instruments," and the "instrument of ten strings" (Ps 33:2; Ps 92:3; Ps 144:9). "The chief musician on Neginoth" was therefore the conductor of that portion of the Temple choir who played upon the stringed instruments, and who are mentioned in Ps 68:25 (נֹגנַים, nogenim). The root (נַגֵּן = - κρούειν) from which the word is derived occurs in 1Sa 16:16-18,23; 1Sa 18:10; 1Sa 19:9; Isa 38:20, and a comparison of these passages confirms what has been said with regard to its meaning. The author of the Shilte Haggibborimn, quoted by Kircher (Musurgia, 1:4, page 48), describes the Neginoth as instruments of wood, long and round, pierced with several apertures, and having three strings of gut stretched across them, which were played with a bow of horsehair. It is extremely doubtful, however, whether the Hebrews were acquainted with anything so closely resembling the modern violin. SEE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS; SEE PSALMS.
