Singers are in front, musicians behind; between them are young women playing tambourines.
Parallel translations
- WEB The singers went before, the minstrels followed after, among the ladies playing with tambourines,
- KJV The singers went before, the players on instruments followed after; among them were the damsels playing with timbrels.
- BSB The singers lead the way, the musicians follow after, among the maidens playing tambourines.
- NKJV The singers went before, the players on instruments followed after; Among them were the maidens playing timbrels.
- NASB The singers went on, the musicians after them, In the midst of the young women beating tambourines.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Singers, musicians, and worshippers join the festive procession honoring God. It shows that praise is to be wholehearted, ordered, and full of joy.
Overview
The detailed description of singers, players, and tambourine-playing women conveys the joyful, organized worship of God's victory procession. Music and celebration are fitting responses to the Lord's saving acts. Such Spirit-filled, exuberant worship points forward to the praise of the redeemed who gather around the throne of the Lamb.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- 1 Chr 13:8David and all Israel played before God with all their might, even with songs, with harps, with stringed instruments, with tambourines, with cymbals, and with trumpets.
- Judg 11:34Jephthah came to Mizpah to his house; and behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances. She was his only child. Besides her he had neither son nor daughter.
- Exod 15:20Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dances.
- 1 Sam 18:6As they came, when David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet king Saul, with tambourines, with joy, and with instruments of music.
- Rev 14:2–3I heard a sound from heaven, like the sound of many waters, and like the sound of a great thunder. The sound which I heard was like that of harpists playing on their harps.
- Rev 15:2–3I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who overcame the beast, his image, and the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God.
- Ps 87:7Those who sing as well as those who dance say, “All my springs are in you.”
- Ps 148:12–13both young men and maidens; old men and children:
- Jer 31:13Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old together; for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.
- Ps 150:3–5Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet! Praise him with harp and lyre!
- Jer 31:4I will build you again, and you will be built, O virgin of Israel. You will again be adorned with your tambourines, and will go out in the dances of those who make merry.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 68:25 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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