Zamar

Zamar (זָמַר) is the characteristic praise verb of the Psalter, usually rendered “to sing praises” or “to make music.” Most worship teaching stops there, at the stringed instrument. But the same root carries a second action Western thought never connects to song: to prune. In Vayikra [Leviticus] 25:3-4 it is the verb for cutting back the vineyard, and the noun mazmerah (מַזְמֵרָה) is the pruning hook of Yeshayahu [Isaiah] 2:4 and Yo’el [Joel] 4:10. Shir HaShirim [Song of Songs] 2:12 holds both senses at once. To zamar God, then, is to make music and to present living wood to the vinedresser’s knife in the same breath. The branch that sings is the branch offered to be cut. Yeshua draws on exactly this in Yochanan [John] 15: the fruitful branch is not spared the knife; it earns it.