PSALMS FOR THE CHIEF MUSICIAN—HEBREW MUSIC.
The words
למנצח בנגינות
, at the head of Psalms iv., liv., lv., lxvii., and lxxvi., are rendered in the Septuagint and Vulgate εἰς τὸ τέλος, in finem, as if they had read
לָנֶצֲח
, omitting the
ם
formative. The Syriac and Arabic versions omit this superscription altogether, from ignorance of the
musical sense of the words. The Chaldee reads
לשבחא על חנגיתא
, "to be sung on the pipe." The word
למנצח
is (from
נצח
, to overcome, excel, or accomplish) a performance, and Aquila translates the entire title, τῷ νικοποιῷ ἐν ψαλμοῖς μελώδημα τῷ Δαυιδ; and Jerome, Victori in Canticis, Psalmus David. But Symmachus, ἐπινίκιος διὰ ψαλτηρίων ᾠδή; and Theodotius, εἰς τὸ νῖκος ὕμνοις, who must have read
לנצח
. The best reading is that of the present text,
למנצח
, which Jarchi, Aben Ezra, and Kimchi render chief singer, or leader of the band (=moderatorem chori musici), as appropriate for a psalm to sung and played in divine service. Therefore the proper translation is, "For the leading performer upon the neginoth." The neginoth appear from the Greek translations, δὶα ψαλτηρίων and ἐν ψαλμοῖς (ψάλλειν = playing on strings). and from its root,
נגן
, to strike, to be stringed instruments, struck by the fingers or hand.
The words
למנצח אל הנחילות
at the head of Psalm v. (for this is the only one so superscribed) should, perhaps, be read with
על
instead of
אל
meaning, "For the leading performer on the nehiloth." The nehiloth appear from the root
חלל
, to bore through, and in Piel, to play the flute, to be the same instruments as the ná-y of the Arabs, similar to the English flute, blown, not transversely as the German flute, but at the end, as the oboe. But the Septuagint, Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotius translate ὑπερ τῆς κληρονομούσης: and hence the Vulgate pro ea, quæ hereditatem consequitur; and Jerome, pro hereditatibus. Suidas explains κληρονομοῦσα by ἐκκλησία, which is the sense of the Syriac.
Psalm vi. is headed
בנגינות על השמינית
, and Psalm vi.
על שמינית
, without the "neginoth;" and the "sheminith" is also mentioned (Chron. xv. 21.). The Chaldee and Jarchi translate "Harps of eight strings." The Septuagint, Vulgate, Aquila, and Jerome, ὑπὲρ τῆς ὀγδοής, appear also to have understood an instrument of eight strings.
T. J. Buckton.
Birmingham.