פְּסַנְטֵרִין
psalterion; a lyre
Definition
פְּסַנְטֵרִין is an Aramaic noun referring to a specific stringed musical instrument, a type of lyre or harp, used in ancient Near Eastern contexts. It is a transliterated loanword from Greek, indicating it was a foreign instrument adopted into the culture. In the Book of Daniel, it is consistently listed among the ensemble of instruments—including the horn, pipe, and other strings—that were to be played as a signal for all peoples to worship King Nebuchadnezzar's golden image (Daniel 3:5, 7, 10, 15). The term does not appear elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible, and its meaning is uniform across these four occurrences.
Biblical Usage
This word is used exclusively in the Aramaic portions of the Book of Daniel, specifically in the narrative of the golden image in Daniel chapter 3. It appears four times (Daniel 3:5, 7, 10, 15) in an identical, formulaic list of musical instruments. Its usage is purely descriptive, denoting one of the instruments in the royal Babylonian orchestra that signaled the command for idolatrous worship. There are no variations in its meaning or application across these verses.
Etymology
The word פְּסַנְטֵרִין is a direct loanword and transliteration from the Greek ψαλτήριον (psaltērion), which itself refers to a stringed instrument played by plucking. It entered the Biblical Aramaic lexicon through cultural contact, reflecting the Hellenistic influence in the Near East even before the Greek empire. The alternate spelling פְּסַנְתֵּרִין shows a minor phonetic variation. This borrowing illustrates how musical technology and terminology were exchanged across ancient civilizations.
Semantic Range
While the instrument itself is not theologically significant, its context in Daniel 3 is profoundly so. The פְּסַנְטֵרִין was part of the state-mandated orchestra that commanded universal worship of a false god, setting the stage for the faithful defiance of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Understanding it as a specific, culturally relevant instrument highlights the totality of the Babylonian king's decree and the concrete choice the Jewish exiles faced between obeying a human command to commit idolatry and remaining faithful to Yahweh, even at the cost of their lives.
The פְּסַנְטֵרִין was a type of lyre or harp, likely a box-shaped stringed instrument common in Greek and later Roman music. Its inclusion in a Babylonian court ensemble (Daniel 3:5) reflects the cosmopolitan nature of the Neo-Babylonian and later Persian empires, which incorporated cultural elements from across their domains. This was not a common Israelite instrument but a foreign import, used here in a context of imperial power and religious coercion, contrasting with the worship instruments of the Jerusalem Temple.
כִּנּוֹר (kinnôr, H3658) — The more common Hebrew term for a lyre, used in Israelite worship (e.g., 1 Samuel 16:23). נֵבֶל (nēḇel, H5035) — A larger, harp-like instrument, also used in Temple worship (e.g., Psalms 33:2).
Word Details
How this works
Hebrew definitions are from Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906) and Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (1890), both public domain. BDB was groundbreaking for its era but reflects 19th-century assumptions about Semitic etymology. Modern scholarship (HALOT, DCH) has revised many entries. Use these definitions as a starting point for exploration, not as the final word on a term's meaning in context.
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