View source for Asor

{{Short description|Biblical instrument of ten strings}}
[[File:Lavoix - Histoire de la musique, 1884 (page 29-1 crop).jpg|thumb|200px|Line drawing labeled Asor Assyrien ([[Assyria|Assyrian]] Asor). This is a representation of a horizontal [[angular harp]]. From the 1884 book ''Histoire de la musique'' by Henri Marie Lavoix  (1846–1897).]]
{{other uses|ASOR (disambiguation){{!}}ASOR}}
The '''asor''' ({{langx|he|עָשׂוֹר}} ''ʿasor''; from עשר ''eśer'', meaning "ten") was a [[musical instrument]] "of ten strings" mentioned in the [[Bible]].<ref name="Grove">{{cite book |entry= 'Asor|title=The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments |date=1984 |publisher=MacMillan Press |editor=Sadie Stanley |volume=1 |place=London |page=80 |quote=a chordophone presumed to have had ten...strings}}</ref> There is little agreement on what sort of instrument it was or to what instruments it had similarities.

==Biblical references==
The word occurs only three times in the Bible, and has not been traced elsewhere. In [[Psalm]] 33:2 the reference is to "[[kinnor]], [[nabla (instrument)|nebel]] and asor" ({{langx|he|הוֹדוּ לַיהוָה בְּ'''כִנּוֹר'''; בְּ'''נֵבֶל''' '''עָשׂוֹר''', זַמְּרוּ-לוֹ׃}}); in Psalm 92:3, to "nebel and asor"; in Psalm 144 to "nebel-asor".{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=764}}

In the [[King James Version]] ''asor'' is translated "an instrument of ten strings", with a marginal note "omit" applied to "instrument". In the [[Septuagint]], the word being derived from a root signifying "ten", the [[Greek language|Greek]] is ''ἐν δεκαχορδῷ'' or ''ψαλτήριον δεκάχορδον'', in the [[Vulgate]] ''in decachordo psalterio''. Each time the word asor is used it follows the word ''nebel'', and probably merely indicates a variant of the nebel, having ten strings instead of the customary twelve assigned to it by [[Josephus]].<ref>{{harvnb|Chisholm|1911|p=764}} cites ''[[Antiquities]]'', vii. 12. 3.</ref>

==Bibliography==
* [[Hermann Mendel]] and August Reissmann, ''Musikalisches Conversations-Lexikon'', vol. 1 (Berlin, 1881)
* Sir [[John Stainer]], ''The Music of the Bible'', {{pp.|35|37}}
* [[Johann Nikolaus Forkel|Forkel]], ''Allgemeine Geschichte der Musik'', vol.1 {{p.|133}} (Leipzig, 1788).

==See also==
* [[Psaltery]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
;Attribution
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Asor|volume=2|page=764}}

[[Category:String instruments]]
[[Category:Lost and extinct musical instruments]]
[[Category:Ancient Israel and Judah]]
[[Category:Israeli musical instruments]]
[[Category:Ancient Hebrew musical instruments]]


{{Judaism-stub}}
{{string-instrument-stub}}

[[he:כלי נגינה במקרא#נבל]]