κιθάρα
harp
Full lexicon entry — Thayer's Greek Lexicon
From Thayer's Greek Lexicon
Where this word appears
See every Accusative-case word in the Greek New Testament →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Case
- Accusative
- The case of the direct object and of extent.
- Dative
- The case of the indirect object, means, or location — “to / for / with / in.”
- Nominative
- The case of the subject (and the predicate nominative).
Gender
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Plural
- More than one.
- Singular
- One.
Grammatical forms
- Noun, Accusative, Plural, Feminine 1 time (25%)
- Noun, Accusative, Singular, Feminine 1 time (25%)
- Noun, Dative, Plural, Feminine 1 time (25%)
- Noun, Nominative, Singular, Feminine 1 time (25%)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (Robinson–Tischendorf, public domain), counted across 4 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where G2788 appears — 4 distinct verses across 2 books. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Greek form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Greek New Testament; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences of this word are not indexed here.
1 Corinthians 1 verse
Revelation 3 verses
- Revelation 5:8 κιθάραν n acc sg fem Now when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
- Revelation 14:2 κιθάραις n dat pl fem I 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.
- Revelation 15:2 κιθάρας n acc pl fem I 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.
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
At its core, κιθαρα (kithára) means “harp.” It occurs a mere 4 verses across Scripture. Its uses cluster heavily in Revelation (75% of all occurrences). Scripture first uses it in 1 Corinthians 14:7. From the same root come κιθαριζω and κιθαρωδος. Each statement above links to its evidence; the full detail follows below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's G2788 catalogs a Greek word from the Greek New Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Greek New Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 4
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 4 distinct verses.
- 2 / 27
- NT books
- The word appears in 2 of 27 New Testament books.
- #1,877
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Greek words (rank 1,877 of 5,347 Greek words by occurrence).
View all 4 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Revelation 3 verses 75%
- 1 Corinthians 1 verse 25%
By section of the New Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Some books belong to more than one corpus (Luke is in both the Gospels and the Lukan corpus, and so on), so these shares overlap and need not total 100%. Each figure is a share of the word’s 4 distinct verses.
- Johannine 3 verses · 75%
- Revelation 3 verses · 75%
- Pauline corpus 1 verse · 25%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Harps 3×
- American Standard Version: Harps 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Harp 2×, Harps 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Harp 2×, Harps 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders G2788 across 4 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders G2788 across 4 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 2 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders G2788 across 4 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders G2788 across 4 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Senses in Thayer's
The 1 sense Thayer's distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency or importance). The full entry — with sub-senses — is in the Lexicon Entry tab.
- a harp to which praises of God are sung in heaven
Word origin
Origin: of uncertain affinity
Of uncertain affinity; a lyre : - harp.
— Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (1890), public domain.
Forms in the corpus
The 4 distinct written forms G2788 takes in the Greek New Testament, most frequent first — each parse links to that case’s occurrences in the concordance.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| κιθάρα kithára | Noun, Nominative, Singular, Feminine | 1 Corinthians 14:7 | 1 |
| κιθάραις kithárais | Noun, Dative, Plural, Feminine | Revelation 14:2 | 1 |
| κιθάραν kitháran | Noun, Accusative, Singular, Feminine | Revelation 5:8 | 1 |
| κιθάρας kitháras | Noun, Accusative, Plural, Feminine | Revelation 15:2 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other Thayer's entries built from the same root as G2788, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derived from this word
Compare all same-root words → They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint usage
The same Greek word κιθαρα appears 23 times in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), across 22 verses in 6 books.
- 23
- LXX occurrences
- Tagged occurrences of this Greek word in the Septuagint.
- 22
- verses
- Distinct Septuagint verses containing this word.
- 6 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 6 of the 39 Old Testament books.
Sample Septuagint occurrences
- Genesis 4:21 κιθάρα
- 2 Chronicles 9:11 κιθάρα
- Job 21:12 κιθάρα
- Psalms 32:2 κιθάρα
- Isaiah 5:12 κιθάρα
- Daniel 3:5 κιθάρα
Septuagint occurrences (same lexeme)
Every verse where the same Strong’s number (G2788) appears in the Greek Septuagint. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context; the Greek form is the matched word — the English is not keyword-highlighted.
- Genesis 4:21 κιθάρα His brother's name was Jubal, who was the father of all who handle the harp and pipe.
- Genesis 31:27 κιθάρα Why did you flee secretly, and deceive me, and didn't tell me, that I might have sent you away with mirth and with songs, with tambourine and with harp;
- 2 Chronicles 9:11 κιθάρα The king made of the algum trees terraces for the house of Yahweh, and for the king's house, and harps and psalteries for the singers: and there were none such seen before in the land of Judah.
- Job 21:12 κιθάρα They sing to the tambourine and harp, And rejoice at the sound of the pipe.
- Job 30:9 κιθάρα "Now I have become their song. Yes, I am a byword to them.
- Job 30:31 κιθάρα Therefore is my harp turned to mourning, And my pipe into the voice of those who weep.
- Psalms 32:2 κιθάρα Blessed is the man to whom Yahweh doesn't impute iniquity, In whose spirit there is no deceit.
- Psalms 42:4 κιθάρα These things I remember, and pour out my soul within me, How I used to go with the crowd, and led them to the house of God, With the voice of joy and praise, a multitude keeping a holy day.
- Psalms 56:9 κιθάρα Then my enemies shall turn back in the day that I call. I know this, that God is for me.
- Psalms 70:22 κιθάρα
- Psalms 80:3 κιθάρα Turn us again, God. Cause your face to shine, And we will be saved.
- Psalms 91:4 κιθάρα He will cover you with his feathers. Under his wings you will take refuge. His faithfulness is your shield and rampart.
- Psalms 97:5 κιθάρα The mountains melt like wax at the presence of Yahweh, At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.
- Psalms 107:3 κιθάρα And gathered out of the lands, From the east and from the west, From the north and from the south.
- Psalms 146:7 κιθάρα Who executes justice for the oppressed; Who gives food to the hungry. Yahweh frees the prisoners.
- Psalms 150:3 κιθάρα Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet! Praise him with harp and lyre!
- Isaiah 5:12 κιθάρα The harp, lyre, tambourine, and flute, with wine, are at their feasts; But they don't regard the work of Yahweh, Neither have they considered the operation of his hands.
- Isaiah 16:11 κιθάρα Why my heart sounds like a harp for Moab, and my inward parts for Kir Heres.
- Isaiah 23:16 κιθάρα Take a harp, go about the city, you prostitute that has been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that you may be remembered.
- Isaiah 24:8 κιθάρα The mirth of tambourines ceases, the noise of those who rejoice ends, the joy of the harp ceases.
- Isaiah 30:32 κιθάρα Every stroke of the appointed staff, which Yahweh shall lay on him, shall be with [the sound of] tambourines and harps; and in battles with the brandishing [of his arm] will he fight with them.
- Daniel 3:5 κιθάρα that whenever you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music, you fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up;
These are occurrences of the same Greek lexeme (G2788) in the Septuagint — not a translation of any one Hebrew word. The store carries no word-level Hebrew↔Greek alignment, so no Hebrew original is asserted here. Counts come from the recovered LXX Strong's tagging — high-frequency vocabulary is well covered, while rare or late forms may be untagged — so they reflect tagged occurrences and may slightly undercount.
