Why did you deceive me and slip away without telling me? If you had told me, I would have sent you on your way with rejoicing and singing to the music of tambourines and harps.

Their children run and play like lambs

and dance to the music of harps and flutes.

I also piled up silver and gold from the royal treasuries of the lands I ruled. Men and women sang to entertain me, and I had all the women a man could want.

At your feasts you have harps and tambourines and flutes---and wine. But you don't understand what the LORD is doing,

You have spent enough time in the past doing what the heathen like to do. Your lives were spent in indecency, lust, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and the disgusting worship of idols.

The music of harps and of human voices, of players of the flute and the trumpet, will never be heard in you again! No workman in any trade will ever be found in you again; and the sound of the millstone will be heard no more!

Stop your noisy songs; I do not want to listen to your harps.

On that day the songs in the palace will become cries of mourning. There will be dead bodies everywhere. They will be cast out in silence."

four thousand to do guard duty, and four thousand to praise the LORD, using the musical instruments provided by the king for this purpose.