“Adonai said to Moshe, “Make two trumpets; make them of hammered silver. Use them for summoning the community and for sounding the call to break camp and move on. When they are sounded, the entire community is to assemble before you at the entrance to the tent of meeting. If only one is sounded, then just the leaders, the heads of the clans of Isra’el, are to assemble before you.”-Numbers 10:1-4
Today we’re going to explode a couple of myths and false assumptions concerning the use of trumpets and shofars in the Bible.
The first thing you need to know is that the silver trumpets mentioned in Scripture are NOT the same thing as SHOFARS.
In fact, the Hebrew word used is different.
In Hebrew, the silver trumpets are called HATSOTSERAH.
And SHOFAR literally means an “antler” or an “animal horn“.
A SHOFAR is NOT and I repeat is NOT a primitive version of the metal trumpets we read about in Scripture.
So what’s the main difference?
The main difference isn’t so much about a difference in usage but about WHO was permitted to use them.
In Scripture, we will only see the common folk blowing the SHOFAR.
However, ONLY the priests were allowed to blow the Silver Trumpets.
Here are a couple of Scriptural examples of the Shofar being used.
TO FRIGHTEN THE ENEMY
“Gid‘on and the hundred men with him arrived at the edge of the camp a little before midnight, just after they had changed the guard. They blew the shofars and broke in pieces the pitchers that were in their hands. All three companies blew the shofars, broke the pitchers and held the torches in their left hands, keeping their right hands free for the shofars they were blowing; and they shouted, “The sword for Adonai and for Gid‘on!”-Judges 7:19-20
TO WARN OF AN APPROACHING ENEMY
“Blow the shofar in Giv‘ah,
a trumpet at Ramah;
sound an alarm at Beit-Aven”
-Hosea 5:8
TO RALLY AN ARMY FOR BATTLE
“Now all Midyan, ‘Amalek and the others from the east joined forces, crossed the Yarden, and set up camp in the Yizre‘el Valley. But the Spirit of Adonai covered Gid‘on. He sounded the call on the shofar, and Avi‘ezer rallied behind him. He sent messengers throughout all M’nasheh, and they too rallied behind him. He also sent messengers to Asher, Z’vulun and Naftali; and they came up to join them.”-Judges 6:33-35
And these are just a small sampling of how the Shofar is used in Scripture.
The Shofar was also blown as a signal for an army to stop fighting, to urge the people to rebel against some wrongdoing, and even to declare the coronation of a new king.
Now what about the battle for Jericho?
The King James version says the following:
“And the armed men went before the priests that blew with the trumpets, and the reward came after the ark, the priests going on, and blowing with the trumpets.”-Joshua 6:9
However, the Complete Jewish Bible says the following:
“The fighting men went ahead of the cohanim blowing the shofars, while the rearguard marched after the ark, with incessant blowing on the shofars.”-Joshua 6:9
So the question is was it SHOFARS or trumpets that were blown?
And the answer is BOTH and you can only know that by going to the original Hebrew.
That’s right, we will find many instances in Scripture where both SHOFARS and trumpets are simultaneously blown.
For example, take a close look at Hosea 5:8 again:
“Blow the shofar in Giv‘ah,
a trumpet at Ramah;
sound an alarm at Beit-Aven”
-Hosea 5:8
The truth is many English Bible versions make the big mistake of treating SHOFARS and trumpets as the same thing and that’s just not the case.
Finally, in ancient times, it’s important to understand that the priests were considered a very important of the army.
“War priests” were common in all ancient civilizations and societies and Israel was no exception.
This makes sense because the wars against the gentile nations were always considered to be HOLY wars and the truth be told they were HOLY wars.
The priests were always active participants in battle with one of their chief duties to blow the trumpets.
i’m glad I found your blog. I was studying out trumpets in my Strong’s Concordance and realized there are two distinct names for trumpets. Now my question is, which type of trumpet is blown by the angels in Revelation? I’m guessing they are warring angels so probably the silver trumpets? Could you enlighten me? Thank you.
The challenge is that the Greek, like English, uses one word for a reverberating instrument. In the Revelation, there are seven angels with “trumpets”, and this appears to be intended to parallel the seven priests with shofars who blew at the battle of Jericho. Therefore, my conclusion would be that angels use shofars, and this is consistent with Exodus 19, where the coming down of Yahweh on Mt Sinai is heralded by a shofar.