HEBREW PERCUSSION INSTRUMENTS

• Tabret or timbrel: The "tofe" (8596) is a tabret, a trimbel or a tambourine, and is used in Genesis 31:27. It's a narrow hoop covered with tightened skin and struck with the hand. It's sometimes call "hadrus." It is correctly translated as either timbrel or tambourine. (KJV uses the term tabret.) It was carried and beaten by the hand. In very early times it may have been made with two membranes, with pieces of bronze inserted in the rim. (Genesis 31:27), (1 Samuel 10:5), (1 Samuel 18:6), (Job 17:6), (Isaiah 5:12), (Isaiah 24:8), (Isaiah 30:32), (\Jeremiah 31:4), (Ezekiel 28:13),
• Sistrum: The "menahah" (4517) or 'menanaim' describes its sound as a rattling sound. It may be very close to the Egyptian sistra. It looked like a child's rattle with metal plates strung on rods of a wooden frame. When it was shaken it would produce a rattling sound. 2 Samuel 6:5 Rattling sounds could also be made by placing beads in a hollow gourd. II Samuel 6:5 is thought to be a sistrum that was shaken. It was of Sumerian origin.
• Tinklers: The "metsayleth" (4700) was a double tinker, a type of double cymbal. I Chronicles 13:8.
• Triangle or Dance: The "shalosh" (7991) was a triangle that one used for effect. It was also called the "dance," because it accompanied "merry making." I Samuel 18:6.
• Cymbals: The "tselawtsal" (6767) msiltayim, or cymbals. Psalms 150:5. The Hebrew word is 'tselatsal' or 'meziltaim'. 2 Samuel 6:5; Psalm 150:5 The word conveys the idea of a clatter. It is used of the whirling sound of the wings of locust. Deuteronomy 28:42; Isaiah 18:1 These were copper plates struck together to get a clanging sound. 1 Corinthians 13:1 They were struck together in the Temple worship to mark the chapters when the Psalms were sung. There the instruments were used to mark time. There were both hand (large or loud) and thumb (high sounding) cymbals. I Chronicles 16:5. History says all cymbals were forbidden at the second temple in the century before Christ for some reason.
• Bells: The "pahamone" (6472) the pa'amon, a bell or chime were bells worn by the priests and were sometimes shaken or struck to music. Exodus 28:33-35. One kind of bell had a name (metsilloth) that came from the Hebrew word meaning "to jingle" or "to rattle". This type of bell is mentioned only once in the Bible (Zech. 14:20), where we are told that the Israelites attached these bells to the bridle or breast strap of horses. (Exodus 28:33-34), (Exodus 39: 25-26), (Zechariah 14:20).
• Drum - tramourine: The "tawfaf" (8608) is a drum. There were several varieties of this instrument, from drum like tom-toms to kettledrums. An Egyptian drum was 2 1/2 feet tall and used to call men together. The most common type was like a tambourine. In Psalms 68:25 it is improperly translated "trimbrels." Some say it could be heard from Jerusalem to Jericho. This contradicts those who say Israel had no drums.