Why is the word…
dulcimer in the KJV Bible and not in more modern translations?

Aramaic: סוּמְפוֹנְיָה —transliteration: sumponeyah or sumphoniah —meaning: a wind instrument (with a double pipe), a bagpipe, panpipes —occurrences: 3

Sumponeyah is an Aramaic word of Greek origin, from symphōnia (συμφωνία). It appears 3 times in the KJV of Daniel 3, each time rendered “dulcimer” in the list of instruments sounded for the worship of Nebuchadnezzar’s golden image. The word is rendered “bagpipe” in Dan. 3:5, 10, 15 LSB.

Lexicons and dictionaries typically define it as a wind instrument—most often a bagpipe (with a double pipe) or panpipes—rather than the modern stringed dulcimer. The KJV rendering follows an older tradition that associated it with a stringed instrument, but the Greek root and ancient descriptions point more strongly to a bagpipe-like instrument (similar to the Italian zampogna or sampogna).

It was not a Jewish instrument.

It is probable that it was introduced into Babylon by some Greek or Western-Asiatic musician.

Some Rabbinical commentators render it by “organ,” the well-known instrument composed of a series of pipes, others by “lyre.” The most probable interpretation is that it was a bag-pipe similar to the zampagna of Southern Europe.

Why did the King James translators use the word “dulcimer”?

The King James translators used “dulcimer” primarily because they followed the Geneva Bible (1560), which had already chosen that word, and because it was a familiar English name for a musical instrument associated with a “sweet” sound.

Matthew’s Bible (1537) had rendered the Aramaic word simply as “Symphonies” (transcribing the Latin symphonia). The Geneva Bible changed this to “dulcimer.” The Bishops’ Bible (1568) followed Geneva, and the KJV (1611) adopted the same rendering.

In the 16th–17th centuries “dulcimer” referred to a stringed instrument with a sweet tone (struck with hammers). Choosing it gave readers a concrete, recognizable instrument name rather than the more abstract or technical “symphony.” They were working in the limits of 17th-century knowledge about ancient Near Eastern instruments.