And his brother's name was Jubal: he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe. Genesis 4:19-24
Juba; os credited with being the father of all those who play the lyre and harp, that is those who built and played musical instruments. Being "made in the image of God" includes the capacity for creative endeavors that involes the discovery of the properties of sound. In this passage two instruments are mentioned : The lyre and pipe. The Hebrew word used here and translated lyre is kinnor or harp, which represents some type of stringed instrument of which there were many in the ancient world. It was obvious that people had discovered that whethever the specific instrument was lutelike, guitarlike, or harplike they had crafted these instruments with strings of varying lengths, thicknesses, and tensions which provided different pitches to the strings. The development of stringed instruments as we know them had their beginning with Jubel. The pipe (uggab) then is the predecessor to all our wind instruments. This might compare to our present panpipe with its combination of pipes of varying lengths to provide a scale making melody possible.
Kinnôr--LYRE (CITHARA) (KJV-"harp") and Nebel--HARP (KJV-- "psaltery"; "viol")
A lyre has a body with two arms, which are joined by a crossbar. The strings stretch from the body to the crossbar. Harps have a neck at an angle to the body, either arched (of the same piece as the body) or angular (the neck fastened to the body at a near right angle). There is some overlap between these two instruments.
Kinnôr comes from the root "to twang." Nebel means "a skin bottle," perhaps referring to the shape of the sound box. Most authorities say kinnôr is a lyre and nebel is a harp. However, there is some confusion between these terms. Some feel that the main difference between them might be that of size and number of strings.
The joyful music of the kinnôr was heard in the temple (1 Chronicles 15:16; 2 Chronicles 5:12), as well as during festivities and banquets (Isaiah 5:12). David used this instrument to calm Saul's spirit (1 Samuel 16:23). It was played by itself (1 Samuel 16:16) or with other musical instruments (1 Samuel 10:5).
The nebel was often played with the kinnôr (1 Kings 10:12) or with other instruments (Isaiah 5:12). It was used in the temple (2 Chronicles 5:12).
Asôr; Nebel Asôr (KJV-- "an instrument of ten strings")
Asôr means "ten." Some believe nebel asôr (Psalms 33:2; 144:9) refers to a "ten-stringed nebel" and asôr (Psalms 92:3) to a shortened form of the name. Others believe this term refers to a zither, an instrument with many strings (in this case, ten) stretched across a body (sounding box), either struck (dulcimer) or plucked (psaltery).
LUTE
A lute has strings stretched along a neck attached to a resonating body, as does a guitar-like or violin-like instrument. No biblical term has been identified with it, although they probably existed in Israel, since they have been found in Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Hittite art.
