Reference
Description and usage
Clappers were flat, oblong, rectangular, or curved. They could be made of wood, ivory, or bone. They were tied together at one end, enabling them to be struck together. This produced a kind of slapping sound.
Translation
For “wooden clappers,” many cultures will know comparable percussion instruments, similar in use and appearance to castanets.
The Hebrew phrase ‘atsey broshim in 2SA 6:5 has been given several interpretations. The phrase means literally “cypress trees” or “pieces of cypress wood.” This has led some scholars to suggest that this is not a reference to musical instruments, but that the people were waving cypress branches as a sign of joy. Others interpret this to mean “instruments made of cypress wood” (ITCL), indicating a separate entry in the series of instruments named. It is also possible to understand the phrase to indicate the material from which the instruments that follow in the list were made; compare, for example, NCV ’s rendering of the last half of this verse: “They were playing wooden instruments: lyres, harps, tambourines, rattles, and cymbals.”