MASCHIL. This Term is often found in the Titles of the Psalms, and signifies1 he that instructs, or makes to understand. Some Interpreters think, but without Reason, that it signifies an Instrument of Musick. There is much more Likelihood that it signifies an instructive Song. Some antient Rabbins believe, that in repeating the Psalms which have this Inscription, they always added an Explication to it. Some Fathers2 think, that the Word intellectus, in Hebrew Maschil, expresses the profound Meaning of the Psalm. But others3 on the contrary say, that it shews the Clearness and Perspicuity of the Psalm, and that it has no Need of any particular Explication.
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