Genesis 4:21

Gen 4:21 And his brother’s name [was] Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ.

Ver. 21. As handle the harp and organ.] He invented Musicam, mentis medicinam maestae . The word here rendered organ is in the Chaldee Paraphrast, a pipe. It imports loveliness and delight: for men do naturally love and delight in music. Ezekiel’s hearers seemed to be much taken with his pulpit music, {Eze 33:32} but proved at length like the Jassians in Strabo, who, delighted with the music of an excellent harper, ran all away as soon as the market bell rang, save only one deaf old man. These antediluvians likely were set all upon the merry mode, and not unlike the inhabitants of Tombutum in Africa, who are said to spend their whole time in piping and dancing.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Gen 4:21. The harp and organ — The word rendered organ here means a lovely instrument; but what kind of an instrument this was, the Jews themselves do not know. This Jubal was the inventor of such musical instruments, and of music itself.

Gen 4:23-24. This passage is extremely obscure. We have no information whom he slew, or on what occasion, neither what ground he had to be so confident of the divine protection. The original words indeed may be rendered, Have I slain a man to my wounding? &c. — And perhaps the best key to their meaning may be to suppose that his wives were convinced he had sinned in marrying them both, and introducing polygamy, and were afraid that the judgments of God would fall upon him for that crime, and upon themselves, for his sake. And he might say these words with a view to comfort them. As if he had said, Why should I fear, or you fear for me? Have I slain a man to my wounding? &c. That is, that I should deserve a wound or death to be inflicted on me? You have no cause to fear for me, or for yourselves on my account. For if Cain shall be avenged seven-fold — If God engaged to protect him, although he murdered his innocent brother, he will much more defend me, who have committed no such wickedness.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Or, flutes, and pipes.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 21. Jubal - the father] i.e. The inventor of musical instruments, such as the כנור kinnor, which we translate harp, and the עוגב ugab, which we render organ; it is very likely that both words are generic, the former including under it all stringed instruments, and the latter, all wind instruments.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

21. Jubal] The originator of musical instruments. Music is thus regarded as the most ancient art. For the name, compare the word “Jubilee”; yôbêl is “the ram’s horn.”

harp and pipe] i.e. the simplest of stringed and wind instruments used by shepherds. LXX ψαλτήριον καὶ κιθάραν: Lat. cithara et organo.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And Zillah, she also bare Tubalcain,.... Thought by many to be the same with Vulcan, his name and business agreeing; for the names are near in sound, Tubalcain may easily pass into Vulcan; and who, with the Heathens, was the god of the smiths, and the maker of Jupiter's thunderbolts, as this was an artificer in iron and brass, as follows: his name is compounded of two words, the latter of which was no doubt put into his name in memory of Cain his great ancestor; the former Josephus (u) reads Thobel, and says of him, that he exceeded all in strength, and had great skill in military affairs:

an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron; he taught men the way of melting metals, and of making armour and weapons of war, and other instruments, for various uses, out of them; and he seems to be the same with the Chrysor of Sanchoniatho; for he says (w) of them (Agreus and Halieus) were begotten two brothers, the inventors of iron, and of working of it: one of these, called Chrysor, is said to be Hephaestus or Vulcan; and Chrysor, as Bochartus (x) seems rightly to conjecture, is "Choresh-Ur, a worker in fire"; that, by means of fire, melted metals, and cast them into different forms, and for different uses; and one of these words is used in the text of Tubalcain; and so, according to Diodorus Siculus (y), Vulcan signifies fire, and was not only the inventor of fire, but he says he was the inventor of all works in iron, brass, gold, and silver, and of all other things wrought by fire, and of all other uses of fire, both by artificers and all other men, and therefore he was called by all "fire". Clemens of Alexandria (z) ascribes the invention of brass and iron to the Idaeans or priests of Cybele in Cyprus; and so Sophocles in Strabo (a):

and the sister of Tubalcain was Naamah; whose name signifies "pleasant", fair and beautiful; and is thought by some to be the Venus of the Heathens; the Arabic writers (b) say she was a most beautiful woman, and found out colours and painting; and by others Minerva; and Josephus (c) says she excelled in the knowledge of divine things; and Minerva is by the Greeks called Nemanoum (d). The Jews say (e) she was the wife of Noah; and some of them say (f) she was the wife of one Shimron, and the mother of the evil spirit Asmodeus, mentioned in Tobit, and of whom other demons were begotten: the Targuru of Jonathan adds,"she was the mistress of lamentation and songs;''but our Bishop Cumberland (g) conjectures, that she was the wife of Ham, was with him in the ark, and after the flood was the means of leading him into idolatry: what led him to this conjecture was, that he observed in Plutarch, that the wife of Cronus, the same with Ham, is by some called Nemaus, which brought Naamah to his mind. Josephus (h) makes the number of children Lamech had by his two wives to be seventy seven.

(u) Antiqu. l. 1. c. 2. sect. 2. (w) Ut supra. (Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 1. p. 35.) (x) Canaan, l. 2. c. 2. col. 706. (y) Bibliothec. l. 1. p. 11, 13. & l. 5. p. 341. (z) Stromat. l. 1. p. 307. Vid. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 34. c. 1, 2. (a) Geograph. l. 10. p. 326. (b) Elmacinus, p. 8. apud Hottinger. Smegma Oriental. l. 1. C. 8. p. 232. (c) Antiqu. l. 1. c. 2. sect. 2. (d) Plutarch. de Jide. (e) Bereshit Rabba, sect. 23. fol. 20. 3. Jarchi in loc. Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 1. 2. (f) R. Elias Levita in Tishbi, fol. 19, 21. (g) History of Sanchoniatho, p. 107. (h) Antiqu. l. 1. c. 2. sect. 2.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Or, the lovely instrument; but what kind of instrument this was, even the Jews do not understand. The meaning is, he was the inventor of music and musical instruments.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

21. Harp and organ — Here used as general names of stringed and wind instruments of music. “That the inventor of musical instruments should be the brother of him who introduced the nomad life is strictly in accordance with the experience of the world. The connexion between music and the pastoral life is indicated in the traditions of the Greeks, which ascribed the invention of the pipe to Pan and of the lyre to Apollo, each of them also being devoted to pastoral pursuits.” — SMITH’S Dictionary of the Bible.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And his brother"s name was Jubal. Player on an instrument, the musician. Cf. jobel, an onomatopoetic word signifying jubilum, a joyful sound. Cf. Greek, ojloluzein ajlalazein; Latin, ululare; Swedish, iolen; Dutch, ioelen; German, juchen (Geseuius). He was the father of all such as handle the harp. The kinnor, a stringed instrument, played on by the plectrum according to Josephus ("Ant.," 7, 12, 3), but in David"s time by the hand, (1Sa_16:23 1Sa_18:10 1Sa_19:9) corresponding to the modern lyre. Cf. kinura kinnura, cithara; German, knarren; so named either from its tremulous, stridulous sound (Gesenius), or from its bent, arched form (Furst). And the organ. Ugabh, from a root signifying to breathe or blow (Gesenius), or to make a lovely sound (Furst); hence generally a wind instrument tibia, ftstula, syrinx; the shepherd"s reed or bagpipe (Keil); the pipe or flute (Onkelos); the organon, i.e. an instrument composed of many pipes (Jerome). Kalisch discovers a fitness in the invention of musical instruments by the brother of a nomadic herdsman, as it is in the happy leisure of this occupation that music is generally first exercised and appreciated." Murphy sees an indication of the easy circumstances of the line of Cain; Candlish, "an instance of the high cultivation which a people may often possess who are altogether irreligious and ungodly;" Bonar, a token of their deepening depravity is to shut God out that these Cainites devise the harp and the organ."

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

ושם אחיו...אבי כל תפש כנור ועוגב, he was the first man to invent music and musical instruments. The reason why the Torah uses the term תפש, “holding in one’s hand,” is probably because the instruments such as guitars and violins have elongated parts which are held by hand.

Radak on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash” (CC BY 4.0); “Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology” (CC BY 4.0); and “R. David Kimhi on the first book of Psalms, Translated by R.G. Finch, London, 1919” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.