Sound

SOUND [ISBE]

SOUND - sound: In Isa 63:15 the King James Version has "the sounding of thy bowels," a painfully literal translation of hamon me'eykha, with the similar phrase, "my bowels shall sound like an harp," in Isa 16:11 (compare Jer 48:36). The intestines were considered a seat of emotion, and at times of great excitement were thought (in poetry, at least) to become tense and to give forth a musical sound. The Revised Version (British and American) (following the King James Version in Jer 48:36) substitutes "heart" for "bowels" in Isa 16:11, thus obscuring the figure but preserving the sense. In Isa 63:15 the Revised Version (British and American) paraphrases "the yearning of thy heart" (the English Revised Version "bowels"), a needless change from 16:11.

See also BATH KOL; SOLEMN, SOLEMNITY.

Burton Scott Easton