But עלמות does not signify voces puberes, but puellae puberes (from עלם, Arab. glm, cogn. חלם, Arab. ḥlm, to have attained to puberty); and although certainly no eunuchs sang in the temple, yet there is direct testimony that Levite youths were among the singers in the second temple;[1] and Ps 68 mentions the עלמות who struck the timbrels at a temple festival. Moreover, we must take into consideration the facts that the compass of the tenor extends even into the soprano, that the singers were of different ages down to twenty years of age, and that Oriental, and more particularly even Jewish, song is fond of falsetto singing. We therefore adopt Perret-Gentil's rendering, chant avec voix de femmes, and still more readily Armand de Mestral's, en soprano; whereas Melissus' rendering, “upon musical instruments called Alamoth (the Germans would say, upon the virginal),” has nothing to commend it.
Psalm 46
Verses 1-3
Psa 46:1-3 (Hebrew_Bible_46:2-4) The congregation begins with a general declaration of that which God is to them. This declaration is the result of their experience. Luther, after the lxx and Vulg., renders it, “in the great distresses which have come upon us.” As though נמצא could stand for הנּמצעות, and that this again could mean anything else but “at present existing,” to which מאד is not at all appropriate. God Himself is called נמצא מאד as being one who allows Himself to be found in times of distress (2Ch 15:4, and frequently) exceedingly; i.e., to those who then seek Him He reveals Himself and verifies His word beyond all measure. Because God is such a God to them, the congregation or church does not fear though a still greater distress than that which they have just withstood, should break in upon them: if the earth should change, i.e., effect, enter upon, undergo or suffer a change (an inwardly transitive Hiphil, Ges. §53, 2); and if the mountains should sink down
- ↑ The Mishna, Erachin 13b, expressly informs us, that whilst the Levites sang to the accompanying play of the nablas and citherns, their youths, standing at their feet below the pulpit, sang with them in order to give to the singing the harmony of high and deep voices (תּבל, condimentum). These Levite youths are called צערי or סועדי הלויים, parvuli (although the Gemara explains it otherwise) or adjutores Levitarum.
