1st Corinthians Chapter 14 verse 7 Holy Bible
Even things without life, giving a voice, whether pipe or harp, if they give not a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped?
read chapter 14 in ASV
Even things without life, having a voice, such as a music-pipe or other instrument, if they do not give out different sounds, who may be certain what is being played?
read chapter 14 in BBE
Even lifeless things giving a sound, whether pipe or harp, if they give not distinction to the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped?
read chapter 14 in DARBY
And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped?
read chapter 14 in KJV
read chapter 14 in WBT
Even things without life, giving a voice, whether pipe or harp, if they didn't give a distinction in the sounds, how would it be known what is piped or harped?
read chapter 14 in WEB
yet the things without life giving sound -- whether pipe or harp -- if a difference in the sounds they may not give, how shall be known that which is piped or that which is harped?
read chapter 14 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 7. - Even things without life giving sound. Even musical instruments - flute or harp - dead instruments as they are, must be so played as to keep up the distinction of intervals, without which the melody is ruined and the tune is unrecognizable. Much more is this the ease with the human voice. "How sour sweet music is,When time is broke and no proportion kept!" The indiscriminate use of the tongue is here compared to the dissonance of jarring and unmodulated instrumental sounds, In harmony there must be due sequence and intervals of sound.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(7) And even things without life.--The pipe and harp were the best-known instruments, and the principle just laid down of the inutility of sounds unless they be distinctive is illustrated by reference to them. Whether it was a harp or a pipe which was being played you could not know unless each gives a distinct sound of its own. The point here is not, as the English seems to suggest, that there must be a difference in tune, so as know what is being piped or harped--that illustration comes in in the next verse--but that each instrument has its own peculiar sound.
