Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

FLUTE

A wind instrument, actually a shawm or primitive clarinet, made of a hollow reed or wood with fingerholes to produce notes. Held vertically, the flute had a double-reed mouthpiece; a variant form was the double flute (cf. Akk. ḥalḥallatu), the two pipes of which could be played individually or simultaneously.

The flute was played for reveling (Job 21:12; Isa. 5:12), for ceremonial purposes such as coronations (1 Kgs. 1:40) and funerals (Matt. 9:23), and for worship (Dan. 3:5, 7, 10, 15). In several contexts, the flute is connected to the praise of God (Ps. 150:4), to the joy of the Lord (87:7; Isa. 30:29), and to the act of prophesying (1 Sam. 10:5). The sound of the flute is compared to the voice of someone weeping (Job 30:31; cf. Jer. 48:36). We may infer that flute playing was common in the Roman Empire since it is listed as one of the typical sounds that would not be heard in the apocalyptic city of Babylon (Rev. 18:22). Paul refers to the flute as an illustration of the importance of making a clear and distinct sound (1 Cor. 14:7).

Timothy W. Seid/Joachim Braun

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

FLUTE

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)