Tabering

"Tabering" is an archaic English term (from Middle English tabour, a small drum) meaning to beat repeatedly as on a drum. It appears once in the KJV: the maidens of Nineveh are pictured as "tabering upon their breasts" (Nah. 2:7) in lamentation as the city falls — a gesture of beating the breast in grief, described through the metaphor of drumming. The term reflects the widespread ancient practice of striking the chest as an expression of mourning, also seen in the NT (Luke 18:13; 23:48).