KINNOR

ancient Hebrew lyre, the musical instrument of King David. According to the Roman Jewish historian Josephus (1st century AD), it resembled the Greek kithara (i.e., having broad arms of a piece with the boxlike neck), and kinnor was translated as kithara in both the Greek Old Testament and the Latin Bible. Medieval writers often mistakenly called it a harp. The kinnor had from 3 to 12 gut strings, in late antiquity usually 10. It was played with a plectrum when accompanying singing or dancing but was apparently plucked with the fingers when used as a solo instrument. The term sometimes referred generically to stringed instruments.