Sound the Shofars – The Many Biblical Uses of the Jewish Trumpets

Sound the Shofars – The Many Biblical Uses of the Jewish Trumpets

by Richard Aaron Honorof

This paper is written to show many of the scriptures about ‘the shofar’, the most mentioned sacred Jewish biblical instrument in the whole bible.  I have been asked to write something about ‘shofars’, so I have listed those bible scriptures on the shofar or ram’s horn and also those on the silver trumpet.  Only the Priests were allowed to sound these silver trumpet shofars.  But all believers in Yeshua, both men and women, are Priests of God, with full authority from God to sound the shofars.

I have chosen 40 scriptures for this booklet, and have placed them in the order that I felt they should be studied.  Our English bibles use the word trumpet, and most of the time this is referring to the ram’s horn, but in some cases it refers to the larger silver trumpet. (*st*)  However, today the silver trumpet is not used; the Kudu shofar is being used in its place by the Jewish community.  The small ‘shofar’ is the ram’s horn, from the ram, and the larger Yemonite shofar comes from the Kudu, the African antelope.  Today, both horns are used in Israel and throughout the world for Jewish religious ceremonial purposes.

The shofar has many uses in the scriptures: for announcing the coming of the LORD;  for warning the people; for praise and worship; for announcing the feasts; for warfare- victory in battle; to assemble the community or the nation; for the coronation of the king; etc…  Shofars are blown by the religious Jewish community mainly on Rosh HaShanah, but they are also used on all the other Jewish feasts listed in Leviticus 23.

1)  And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns.   Genesis 22:13

2)  And the LORD said to Moses: ‘Go to the people, and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments, and be ready against the third day; for the third day the LORD will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai.  …when the Jubal (Jubilee) sounds long, they shall come up to the mount.’     And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the shofar exceedingly loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.  And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.  And when the voice of the shofar sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice.  And the LORD came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount; and Moses went up.  Exodus 19:10,11,13,16,18-20

3) And when you go to war in your land against the adversary that oppresseth you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets (short blasts); and you shall be remembered before the LORD your God, and you shall be saved from your enemies.  Numbers 10:9  *st*

4)  And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the children of Israel, saying:  In the seventh month [Tishri], in the first day of the month, shall be a solemn rest to you,  [Rosh HaShanah] a memorial proclaimed with the blast of horns, a holy convocation.   You shall do no manner of servile work; and you shall bring an offering made by fire to the LORD.  Leviticus 23:23-25        And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no servile work: it is a day of blowing the trumpets to you.  Numbers 29:1

5) …two trumpets of silver (*st*); … and they shall be to you for the calling of the congregation, and for causing the camps to set forward.  And when they shall blow with them, all the congregation shall gather themselves unto you at the door of the tent of meeting.  And if they blow but with one, then the princes, the heads of thousands of Israel, shall gather themselves to you.  And when you blow an alarm, the camps that lie.

on the east side shall take their journey.  And when you blow an alarm the second time, the camps that lie on the south side shall set forward; they shall blow an alarm for their journeys.  But when the assembly is to be gathered together, you shall blow, but you shall not sound an alarm.        And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow with the trumpets (*st*); and they shall  be to you for a statute forever throughout your generations.  Numbers 10:2-8

6)  Also in the day of your gladness, and in your appointed seasons, and in your new moons, you shall blow with the trumpets (*st*) over your burnt-offerings, and over the sacrifices  of your peace-offerings; and they shall be to you for a memorial before your God:   I am the LORD your God.  Numbers 10:10

7)  Blow the ram’s horn at the new moon, at the full moon for our feast day.   For it is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob.  Psalm 81:4,5

8)  Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel; …And seven priests shall bear seven rams horns before the ark; and the seventh day you shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the horns.  And it shall be, that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the horn, all the people shall shout with a great shout (teruah); and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall go up every man straight before him.  Joshua 6:1,4,5

9)  But the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon; then he blew the shofar, and the Abiezrites gathered behind him.  …And he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a shofar into each mans hand…    Judges 6:34 and 7:16

10) So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting [teruah (like the shofar call)], and with the sound of the shofar. 2nd Samuel 6:15

1) Thus all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the LORD with shouting [teruah], and with sound of the shofar, and with trumpets (*st*), and with cymbals, sounding aloud with psalteries and harps.  First Chronicles 15:28

12) And king David said to them: “Take with you the servants of your lord, and cause Solomon my son to ride upon my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon.  And let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him there king over Israel; and blow with the horn, and say: ‘Long live King Solomon!’”  And Zadok the priest took the horn of oil out of the Tent, and anointed Solomon. And they blew the ram’s horn; and all the people said: ‘Long live King Solomon!’  First Kings 1:33,34,39

13) …also the Levites who were the singers, all of them, …arrayed in fine linen, with cymbals and psalteries and harps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them  a hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets (*st*) – it came even to pass, when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound in praising and thanking the LORD; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the LORD: ‘for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever’; that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the LORD, so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God.  Second Chronicles 5:12-14

14)  Every one of the builders had his sword girded at his side as he built.  And the one who sounded the trumpet was beside me.  Nehemiah 4:18

15)  Sing praises to the LORD with the harp; With the harp and the voice of melody, With trumpets (*st*) and the sound of the horn, shout before the King, the LORD.    Psalm 98:5,6

16)  God is gone up amidst shouting [teruah], The LORD amidst the sound of the horn.  Psalm 47:6

17)  Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.  Isaiah 58:1   For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?   So likewise, you, except you utter by the tongue words easy to understand, how shall it be known what is spoken?  1 Corinthians 14:8,9

*   Believers in Yeshua are now heading into Great World Revival for the nest few years, but also Great World Tribulation is about to begin, as the One World Government comes into authority.  For believers, the only real safe place is to get into the presence of the Lord!  Get into the Holy of Holies!  Get into His Fire!  This is the way, walk in it…  Isaiah 30:21

18)  I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of  a trumpet, saying, I am the Aleph and the Tav, the first and the last:  Revelation 1:10,11      After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which  I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up…  Revelation 4:1

19)  And the word of the LORD came to me, saying: ‘Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and say to them: When I bring the sword upon the land, if the people of the land take a man from among them, and set him for their watchman; if, when he sees the sword come upon the land, he blow the horn, and warns the people; then whosoever hears the sound of the horn, and takes not warning, if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head… if he had taken warning, he would have delivered his soul.  But if the watchman see the sword come, and does not blow the horn, and the people be not warned…  Ezekiel 33:1-5,6

20)  Set the horn to thy mouth. As an eagle he cometh against the house of the LORD; Because they have transgressed My covenant, and trespassed against My law. Will they cry to Me: ‘My God, we Israel know You’? Israel hath cast off that which is good; The enemy shall pursue him. They have set up kings, but not from Me…    Hosea 8:1-4

21)  Thus says the LORD:  Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths,  where is the good way, and walk therein, and you shall find rest for your souls.   But they said: ‘We will not walk therein.’  And I set watchmen over you: ` ‘Attend to the sound of the horn’.  But they said: ‘We will not attend.’ Therefore hear, you nations, and know, O congregation, what is against them.   Hear, O earth:  Behold, I will bring evil upon this people, Even the fruit of their thoughts,  Because they have not attended unto My words, and as for My teaching, they have  rejected it.    Jeremiah 6:16-19

22)  Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.  Isaiah 58:1

23)  Blow the horn in Zion, Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly; Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts; Let the bridegroom go forth from his chamber, and the bride out of her pavilion. Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say: ‘Spare Your people, O LORD,  and give not Your heritage to reproach…’    Joel 2:15-17

24)  For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem: Break up for you a fallow ground, And sow not among thorns.  Circumcise yourselves to the LORD,  and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Lest My fury go forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it,  because of the evil of your doings.   Declare in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem, and say:  ‘Blow the horn in the land’; Cry aloud and say: ‘Assemble yourselves, and let us go  into the fortified cities.’  Set up a standard toward Zion; Put yourselves under covert,  stay not; For I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction. Jeremiah 4:3-6

25)  The great Day of the LORD is near, It is near and hastens greatly, Even the voice of the Day of the LORD, Wherein the mighty man cries bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of the horn and alarm… And I will bring distress upon men… Because they have sinned against the LORD; And their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as dung.   Gather yourselves together, yes, gather together, O nation not desired; before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the LORD come upon you.   Seek the LORD, all the meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be you shall be hid in the day of the LORD’s anger.  Zephaniah 1:14-17 and 2:1-3

26)  Blow ye the horn in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain; Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; For the day of the LORD comes,  for it is at hand;  Joel 2:1

27)  When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.  And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets… So the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. Revelation 8:1,2

28) In the parable of the ten virgins, only five were ready and went in and the door shut…  ‘While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.  And at midnight there was a cry, behold, the bridegroom comes,’ and those ready went in.   Matthew 25:5,6 ‘Gather My saints together to Me, those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.’ Psalm 50:2

29) …but in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound,  the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to his servants the prophets.  Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Messiah, and He shall reign forever and ever!’  Revelation 10:7; 11:15

30)  Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain [Babylon], says the LORD,  which destroys all the earth; And I will stretch out My hand upon you,  Set up a standard in the land, blow the horn among the nations, prepare the nations  against her [Babylon], call together against her the kingdoms…  Jeremiah 51:25,27

31)  My bowels, my bowels! I writhe in pain!  The chambers of my heart!  My heart moans within me!  I cannot hold my peace!  Because you have heard, O my soul,  the sound of the horn, the alarm of war.  Destruction followeth upon destruction,  For the whole land is spoiled; Suddenly are My tents spoiled, My curtains in a moment. How long shall I see the standard, Shall I hear the sound of the horn? For My people is foolish, they know Me not; …   And they have no understanding; they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.   Jeremiah 4:19-23

32)  Behold, I tell you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, be we shall be changed,  in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.  For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.   ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’  First Corinthians 15:51,52,54

33)  For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet [shofar] of God.  And the dead in Messiah will rise first.       Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds  to meet the LORD in the air.  And thus we shall always be with the LORD.   First Thessalonians 4:16,17

34) And the LORD shall be seen over them, [when He returns to earth]  And His arrow shall go forth as the lightning; [He is in battle]      And the Lord GOD will blow the horn [the great shofar],  And will go with whirlwinds of the south…  Zechariah 9:14       This will be on Yom Kippur!3

35)  For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will  the coming of the Son of Man be.  For wherever the carcass is [the dead in Messiah],  there the eagles will be gathered together [in the heavens].      Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.  Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes  of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.        And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, [the shofar gadol] *       and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven  to the other.  Matthew 24:27-31

36)   Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound [teruah],  they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of Your countenance, in Your day shall they rejoice all the day: and in Your righteousness shall they be exalted.  Psalm 89:15,16

37)  And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD will beat off [His fruit] from  the flood of the River to the Brook of Egypt, and you shall be gathered one by one,  O you children of Israel. And it shall come to pass in that day, (the Lord does this…) that  a great shofar [shofar gadol] shall be blown;  [ Lord Yeshua blows this Great Shofar!] And they shall come that were lost in the land of Assyria, and they that were dispersed  in the land of Egypt; and they shall worship the LORD in the holy mountain at Jerusalem. Isaiah 27:12,13

38)  All inhabitants of the world, and you dwellers on the earth, When an ensign is lifted up  on the mountains, you see;  And when the horn is blown, you hear.   Isaiah 18:3

…it is interesting to note that in the story of the birth of Yeshua it says…  ‘Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people, and  has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David.’   Luke 1:68,69

And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying,  Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all,  and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.  Jude 14,15

…and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourne for him,  as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.  In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem… and the land shall mourne, every family by itself… And His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem  on the east…

…and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with You.  Zechariah 12:10, 14:4,5

39) And you shall number seven sabbaths of years to you, seven times seven years; and there shall be to you the days of seven sabbaths of years, even forty and nine years.  Then shall you make proclamation with the blast of the horn on the tenth day of the seventh month; [Yom Kippur] in the day of atonement shall you make proclamation with the horn throughout all your land.  And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim  liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereof;       it shall be a jubilee to you; and you shall return every man his possession,  and you shall return every man his family.  A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be to you;  …it shall be holy to you;   Leviticus 25:8-11,12

40)  Hallelujah.  Praise God in the sanctuary; Praise Him in the firmament of His power. Praise Him for His mighty acts; Praise Him according to His abundant greatness. Praise Him with the blast of the horn;  (1st instrument mentioned for praise) Praise Him with the psaltery and harp.  Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; Praise Him with stringed instruments and the pipe.  Praise Him with the loud-sounding cymbals; Praise Him with the clanging cymbals.  Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.  Hallelujah.    Psalm 150.

May 17, 2020

Share this post

Leave a Reply