Psalms 149:3
Let them praise his name in choir: let them sing to him with the timbrel and the psaltery.
Open Psalms 149:3 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Laudent nomen ejus in choro ; in tympano et psalterio psallant ei.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- αἰνεσάτωσαν τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ ἐν χορῷ, ἐν τυμπάνῳ καὶ ψαλτηρίῳ ψαλάτωσαν αὐτῷ.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- יְהַֽלְל֣וּ שְׁמ֣וֹ בְמָח֑וֹל בְּתֹ֥ף וְ֝כִנּ֗וֹר יְזַמְּרוּ לֽוֹ
Haydock's commentary
Choir. A musical instrument, though it imply also a dance, &c.
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
Clement of Alexandria The Instructor, Chapter IV. How to Conduct Ourselves at Feasts
Further, among the ancient Greeks, in their banquets over the brimming cups, a song was sung called a skolion, after the manner of the Hebrew psalms, all together raising the pæan with the voice, and sometimes also taking turns in the song while they drank healths round; while those that were more musical than the rest sang to the lyre. But let amatory songs be banished far away, and let our songs be hymns to God. “Let them praise,” it is said, “His name in the dance, and let them play to Him on the timbrel and psaltery.” And what is the choir which plays? The Spirit will show thee: “Let His praise be in the congregation (church) of the saints; let them be joyful in their King.” And again he adds, “The Lord will take pleasure in His people.” For temperate harmonies are to be admitted; but we are to banish as far as possible from our robust mind those liquid harmonies, which, through pern …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm CXLIX
4. “Let them praise His Name in chorus” ( ver. 3 ). What meaneth “chorus”? Many know what a “chorus” is: nay, as we are speaking in a town, almost all know. A “chorus” is the union of singers. If we sing “in chorus,” let us sing in concord. If any one’s voice is out of harmony in a chorus of singers, it offendeth the ear, and throweth the chorus into confusion. If the voice of one echoing discordantly troubleth the harmony of them who sing, how doth the discord of heresy throw into confusion the harmony of them who praise. The whole world is now the chorus of Christ. The chorus of Christ soundeth harmoniously from east to west. “Let them sing a psalm unto Him with timbrel and psaltery.” Wherefore taketh he to him the “timbrel and psaltery”? That not the voice alone may praise, but the works too. When timbrel and psaltery are taken, the hands harmonize with the voice. …