Dulcimer: (Heb. sumphoniah), a musical instrument mentioned in
(Daniel 3:5,15) along
with other instruments there named, as sounded before the golden
image. It was not a Jewish instrument. In the margin of the Revised
Version it is styled the "bag-pipe." Luther translated it "lute," and
Grotius the "crooked trumpet." It is probable that it was introduced
into Babylon by some Greek or Western-Asiatic musician. Some
Rabbinical commentators render it by "organ," the well-known
instrument composed of a series of pipes, others by "lyre." The most
probable interpretation is that it was a bag-pipe similar to the
zampagna of Southern Europe.
