Genesis 4:21 names the two sons of Lamech, mothered by Adah, as Yaval and Yuval; the former was the father of the nomadic Bedouin, the latter the father of all who handle the kinnor (כִּנּוֹר) and ugav (עוּגָב) - probably the harp and organ. In fact we should read "father" as denoting an earlier deity, and therefore reckon Yuval to have been the Kena'ani (Canaanite) god of music; some scholars (e.g. Buttmann in "Mythologus") in fact identify him with Apollo, arguing their names share a common definition; others go less far, simply associating them as two separate inventors of early musical instruments, with Tuval-Kayin similarly associated.
The same passage gives Lamech's other wife Tsilah a son named Tuval-Kayin (Tubal-Cain - תובל-קין), which comes from the same root as Yuval. However, they are probably not step-brothers at all, but all three variants of the same divinity, with the godname altered from one version of 15 to another: Yah (יה) having the numerical value of 15, but never used because it also spells out the name of the moon-goddess Yah, whose royal day is of course that on which she is full, the 15th of the lunar month; 9 (Tet - ט) with 6 (Vav - ו) is therefore used instead for the number 15, as in Tu Be Shvat, the new year for trees etc.
The musical link comes down to us through the word Yovel (יובל - Jubilee) = a festival day, heralded by the sounding of a trumpet or other instrument. Keren ha-Yovel (קרן היובל), "the horn of the Jubilee" is mentioned thus in Joshua 6:5 and hinted at in Exodus 19:13; it is also frequently referred to as Shophar ha-Yovel (שופר היובל), the famous Shofar being the ram's horn still blown to this day to herald in the New Year; references to it by this name are too numerous to detail here. What is slightly surprising is that Yuval himself should be credited with the invention of two instruments that are not the one associated with the day that takes his name; unless he also invented the shofar, but it failed to get mentioned, or the day was named in his honour, but likewise without an aetiology in the text.
Yovel is onomatopoeic, like the sounds made by the instruments: tekiyah, teru'ah, shavarim... (click here to hear them)
See Gesenius for some fairly complex etymology.
The root Yaval (יבל) means "to flow", whence one of several words for "a river"; it also means "to rejoice", presumably because emotion flows out.
Leviticus 22:22 uses it for ulcers in cattle, presumably because they too "flowout".
Yovel is onomatopoeic, like the sounds made by the instruments: tekiyah, teru'ah, shavarim... (click here to hear them)
See Gesenius for some fairly complex etymology.
The root Yaval (יבל) means "to flow", whence one of several words for "a river"; it also means "to rejoice", presumably because emotion flows out.
Leviticus 22:22 uses it for ulcers in cattle, presumably because they too "flowout".
But perhaps most interesting of all, because it takes us back to the root of both YUVAL and TUVAL-KAYIN, and explains the possible link with Apollo noted above, are Psalm 90:2 and 93:1, the first of which tells us that
90:2 BE TEREM HARIM YULADU VA TECHOLEL ERETS VE TEVEL U ME OLAM AD OLAM ATAH ELבְּטֶרֶם הָרִים יֻלָּדוּ וַתְּחוֹלֵל אֶרֶץ וְתֵבֵל וּמֵעוֹלָם עַד עוֹלָם אַתָּה אֵל
KJ: Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
BN: Before the mountains were established, even before you formed the Earth and the Cosmos, {N} from infinity to infinity, you are El.
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