Psalm 33:2
Praise the LORD with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings.
Praise the Lord with harp,.... An instrument David was well skilled in the use of, the inventor of which was Jubal, Genesis 4:21;
sing unto, him with the psaltery; the name of this instrument is in the Hebrew language "nebel": the account which Josephus {w} gives of this, and of the former, is,
"the harp is extended with ten strings, and is plucked with a quill; the "nabla", or psaltery, has twelve sounds, and is played upon with the fingers;''
some make this and the next to be the same:
and an instrument of ten strings; and read them together thus, "with the psaltery of ten strings": and so the Targum, Septuagint, and other versions {x}: but it seems from Josephus that it was not a stringed instrument, but had holes, and those twelve; and besides it is distinguished from the instrument of ten strings, Psalms 92:3; it was in the form of a bottle, from whence it had its name.
{w} Antiqu. l. 7. c. 12. s. 3.
{x} Vid. Jarchium in loc. & R. Mosem in Aben Ezra in loc.