nevel

This is the everyday storage vessel of ancient Israel: a big container, made either of animal hide or of fired clay, used to hold and carry wine, water, and other liquids. It is the kind of thing you would load onto a donkey for a journey or bring to the sanctuary with an offering.

Because the word names the container by its function rather than its material, English translations reach for several different words for it, from wineskin to jar to pitcher to flagon. The same vessel could be a supple leather bag or a heavy earthenware jar, so the right English word depends on the scene.

Poets could also stretch the picture upward: the clouds become the waterskins of heaven, tipped over to pour out rain. The vessel is fragile too, and prophets use its easy shattering as an image of ruin.

This is a plucked stringed instrument, one of the mainstays of Israel's music. It turns up again and again alongside the kinnor (the lyre) in temple worship, royal processions, and festive celebration, and it is a favorite of the psalmists, who call people to praise God with it.

One common form had ten strings, which the text names directly in a few places. Beyond that, the exact shape is uncertain: it may have been a larger, lower-pitched instrument than the lyre it usually accompanies. Because no ancient example survives with a label attached, translators have guessed at it variously, calling it a harp, a lute, a viol, or (in older English Bibles) a psaltery.

Whatever its precise form, its role is clear. It belongs to joy and reverence: skilled players used it to lead singing, and the prophets could turn it around as a symbol of shallow revelry when music replaced justice.