Psalm 150 is part of the last collection of Hallel psalms in the Hebrew Psalter. This last collection starts in Psalm 146 and some theologians have notice a progression in this five psalms of the theme halelu yah (Praise Yahweh) in which the worship of God starts in the individual (Psalm 146), extends to the community (Psalm 147), until it encloses the whole creation (Psalm 150).[1] If this progression is questionable, the generalized imperative to the whole body of creation (celestial or earthly beings, live or lifeless entities, rational and irrational beings, Israel and other nations, all kinds of musical instruments) to worship its Creator is not.
1. Does it speak of dancing in this Psalm?
The word מָח֑וֹל appears seven times in the Hebrew Bible: one time as a proper name[2], three times it is contrasted with the word “mourning” (מִסְפֵּד or אֵבֶל)[3], one time with the word שָׂחַק[4], and two times with the musical instrument תֹּף.[5]
English translations in their great majority translated מָח֑וֹל as “dancing”. This is also the position of the most known commentaries on the book of Psalms. The NIDOTTE associates this word etymologically to the root חול which means “to perform a whirling dance”.[6] In spite of affirming the possibility that in Psalm 149 and 150 the word may denote the idea of musical instrument, this meaning is not fruit of the original meaning of the word itself (in other words, of its root) but is consequence of a figurative usage (synecdoche). The enhanced edition of BDB also affirms the root of מָח֑וֹל as חול and, thus, its meaning as “dancing”. It seems that this root association was influence by an article written in 1981 by M. I. Gruber.[7] On the other hand, Gruber seems to have been influenced yet by another scholar. Julian Morgenstern, professor in the Hebrew Union College, wrote an article in 1916 in which he also affirmed that מָח֑וֹל was a development of חול.[8] If all this sources are correct and no doubt can be raised concerning the relationship between root and derivative word, then one is stuck with the rendering of מָח֑וֹל as “dancing”.
But among all the commentaries consulted in the composition of this paper one alone mentioned an alternative root for מָח֑וֹל. On Calvin’s commentaries on Psalm 149 there is a footnote, certainly not from Calvin[9], which affirms that the root of מָח֑וֹל is the Hebrew חל which means, to make a hole or opening.[10] According to someone named Parkhurst[11], the translation of מָח֑וֹל to English should be “some fistular wind instrument of music, with holes, as a flute, pipe, of fife”. The footnote also mentions the observation made on the translation on the word מָח֑וֹל by the Methodist Rev. Dr. Adam Clark who said: “I know of no place in the Bible that מחוֹל, mechol, or מחלת, mechalatah, mean dance of any kind; they constantly mean some kind of pipe.”[12] It is important to remark, although, that I could not find the root חל in modern lexicons.
In 1894 this position on the root and meaning of מחוֹל as a musical instrument was still prevalent. The Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, published in that same year, in its sixth volume, pages 763 to 773, presents a well researched article on music instruments in the Bible in which it asserts that “the word ‘dance’ is used in the AV for the Hebrew term machol, מחוֹל, a musical instrument of percussion supposed to have been used by the Hebrews at an early period of their history.”[13] The article also indicates the changing in meaning of the word mentioning “some modern lexicographers who regard machol as synonymous with rakod (Eccles. iii, 4), restrict its meaning to the exercise or amusement of dancing.”[14] In spite of the arising controversy, it reinforced its main proposition of מחוֹל being a musical instrument by recurring to the Semitic and Arabic[15] versions of the Old Testament and the Targumists rendering of that word. Among scholars, in addition to Dr. Adam Clarke and Parkhurst, it finds support in Rosenmuller who “in his commentary on Exod. xv, 20, observes that, on comparing the passages of Judg. xi, 34; 1 Sam. xviii, 6; and Jer. xxxi, 4, and assigning a rational exegesis to their context, machol must mean in these instances some musical instrument, probably of the flute kind, and principally played on by women.”[16] Another scholar mentioned in the article is Joel Brill, who wrote a preface to Mendelssohn’s Psalms, who comments precisely on Psalm 150 and affirms of it that “it is evident from the passage, “Praise him with the toph and the machol,’ that machol must mean here some musical instrument, and this is the opinion of the majority of scholars.”[17]
Therefore, given the existence of a different translation for the word מחוֹל, especially one that fits perfectly with the context of Psalm 150, it seems appropriate to affirm that this psalm is not refereeing to the activity of dancing but to another musical instrument that along with all other indisputable instruments mentioned in the pericope must be employed in the praise of Jehovah.[18] The necessity remains now of an investigation to discover why in around 22 years this meaning of machol was so neglected and rejected to the point that modern lexicons do not even mention it as a usage once employed. I suspect that at some point in the history of the study of Biblical Hebrew language, given the difficulty of the word, scholars simply embraced the meaning by the Septuagint to מחוֹל without asking too many questions. Gesenius seems to have adopted this position.[19] Another possibility is the imposition of a synonymity between מחוֹל and x, in Ecclesiastes 3:4, restricting the meaning of the former to the “exercise or amusement of dancing.”[20]
[1] Geoffrey Grogan, Psalms – Two Horizons Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 225.
[2] I Kings 5:11.
[3] Psalm 30:12, Jeremiah 31:13, Lamentations 5:15.
[4] Jeremiah 31:4.
[5] Psalm 149:3, Psalm 150:4.
[6] New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis, Pradis CDROM.
[7] M. I. Gruber, “Ten Dance-Derived Expressions in the Hebrew Bible,” Bib 62, 1981, 320-346. The text in the NIDOTTE affirms that it owes its definition of the root חול to him.
[8] J. Morgenstern, “The Etymological History of the Three Hebrew Synonyms for ‘to Dance,’ HGG, HLL, KRR, and their Cultural Significance,” JAOS 36, 1916, 321.
[9] On his commentary on Psalm 150, Calvin seems very secure in understanding the Hebrew words on verses 3 to 5 as instruments used in the praise of the Lord. Yet he affirms “I do not insist upon the words in the Hebrew signifying the music instruments.”
[10] John Calvin, Commentary on the book of Psalms, Vol. 2, Ages Software.
[11] In spite of all my efforts, I could not find anywhere who is this person.
[12] John Calvin, Psalms, Vol. 2, Ages Software.
[13] John M’Clintock and James Strong, The Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, Vol. 6 (New York: Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1894), 772.
[14] Ibid., 772.
[15] The Arabic equivalent for the Hebrew מחוֹל refers to a drum with either one or two faces, not to a flute or pipe.
[16] M’Clintock and Strong, The Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, 773.
[17] Ibid., 773.
[18] The most literal translations of Psalm 149 and 150 in the Portuguese language render מחוֹל as flute and also favor this position.
[19] Ibid., 773.
[20] Ibid., 772.
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