Properly speaking, the real service of praise in the Temple was only with the voice. This

is often laid down as a principle by the Rabbis. What instrumental music there was,

served only to accompany and sustain the song. Accordingly, none other than Levites

might act as choristers, while other distinguished Israelites were allowed to take part in

the instrumental music. The blasts of the trumpets, blown by priests only, formed--at

least in the second Temple --no part of the instrumental music of the service, but were

intended for quite different purposes. Even the posture of the performers showe d this,

for while the Levites stood at their desks facing towards the sanctuary, or westwards,

the priests, with their silver trumpets, stood exactly in the opposite direction, on the

west side of the rise of the altar, by the 'table of the fat,' and looking eastwards or down

the courts. On ordinary days the priests blew seven times, each time three blasts --a

short sound, an alarm, and again a sharp short sound (Thekiah, Theruah, and Thekiah

), or, as the Rabbis express it, 'An alarm in the midst and a plain note before and after

According to tradition, they were intended symbolically to proclaim the kingdom of God,

Divine Providence, and the final judgment. The first three blasts were blown when the

great gates of the Temple --especially that of Nicanor--were opened. Then, when the

drink-offering was poured out, the Levites sung the psalm of the day in three sections.

After each section there was a pause, when the priests blew three blasts, and the people

worshipped. This was the practice at the evening, as at the morning sacrifice. On the eve

of the Sabbath a threefold blast of the priests' trumpets summoned the people, far as the

sound was carried over the city, to prepare for the holy day, while another threefold

blast announced its actual commencement. On Sabbaths, when, besides the ordinary, an

additional sacrifice was brought, and the 'Song of Moses' sung--not the whole every

Sabbath, but divided in six parts, one for every Sabbath,--the priests sounded their

trumpets additional three times in the pauses of the Sabbath psalm.

The music of the Temple owed its origin to David, who was not only a poet and a

musical composer, but who also invented musical instruments (Amos 6:5; 1 Chron 23:5),

especially the ten-stringed Nevel or lute (Psa 33:2; 144:9). From the Book of Chronicles

we know how fully this part of the service was cultivated, although the statement of

Josephus (Anti. viii. 3, 8.), that Solomon had provided forty thousand harps and lutes,

and two hundred thousand silver trumpets, is evidently a gross exaggeration. The

Rabbis enumerate thirty-six different instruments, of which only fifteen are mentioned in

the Bible, and of these five in the Pentateuch. As in early Jewish poetry there was

neither definite and continued metre (in the modern sense), nor regular and premeditated

rhyme, so there was neither musical notation, nor yet any artificial harmony. The melody

was simple, sweet, and sung in unison to the accompaniment of instrumental music.

Only one pair of brass cymbals were allowed to be used. But this 'sounding brass' and

'tinkling cymbal' formed no part of the Temple music itself, and served only as the signal

to begin that part of the service. To this the apostle seems to refer when, in 1

Corinthians 13:1, he compares the gift of 'tongues' to the sign or signal by which the real

music of the Temple was introduced.

That music was chiefly sustained by the harp (Kinnor) and the lute (Nevel). Of the latter

(which was probably used for solos) not less than two or more than six were to be in the

Temple orchestra; of the former, or harp, as many as possible, but never less than nine.

There were, of course, several varieties both of the Nevel and the Kinnor. The chief