Trumpet
Trumpet is in the A.V. usually the rendering of one or the other of the two Hebrew words detailed below; but besides these it occasionally stands as the representative of the following: יוֹבֵל, Ex 19:13, the jubilee (q.v.) trumpet; תָּקוֹעִ takea, Eze 7:14, prop. the blowing of the trumpet. SEE TRUMPETS, FEAST OF.
1. חֲצוֹצרָה , chatsotserah (Sept. σάλπιγξ, Vtmlg. tuba), prob. an onomatopoetic word, like the Lat. taratantara, from the quivering reverberation of its sound, was the straight trumpet (Josephus, Ant. 3, 12, 6; Jerome, ad Hos. 5, 8; Buxtorf, Lex. s.v.), and is the term used in Nu 10:2,8-10; Nu 31:6; 2Ki 11:14 ("trumpeter," in first occurrence); 12:13; 1Ch 13:8; 1Ch 15:24,28; 1Ch 16:6,42; 2Ch 5:12-13; 2Ch 13:12,14; 2Ch 15:14; 2Ch 20:28; 2Ch 23:13; 2Ch 29:26-28; Ezr 3; Ezr 10; Ne 12:35,41; Ps 98:6; Ho 5:8. There were originally two such, which the priests used on festive occasions (Nu 10:2 sq.; comp. 31:6; 2Ki 12:13). Later (in David's time) the instruments were of a richer character (1Ch 15:24; 1Ch 16:42; 2Ch 5; 2Ch 12 sq.; 29:20; for a conjecture as to their form, see Sommner, Bibl Abhandl. 1, 39 sq.). Similar ones were employed in the year of jubilee (2Ki 11:14), and for popular proclamations (Ho 5:8); comp. Rosellini, Monum. II, 3, 32; Wilkinson, 2, 262. The form of this trumpet is indicated in the sculpture on the Arch of Titus at Rome (see Reland, Spolia Templi Hieros. p. 184 sq.) and on coins (Frohlich, Anal. Syr. proleg. p. 80, pl. 18, fig. 17 and 18), and it appears to have emitted a clear, shrill tone (comp. Foskel, 1, 86), adapted to an alarum (תָּקִע). SEE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.
2. שׁוֹפָר, shophar (Sept. usually σάλπιγξ, Vulg. buccina), was the curved trumpet or horn (Lat. lituus) for signals; and is the word elsewhere rendered "trumpet" in the A. V. ("cornet," 1Ch 15:28; 2Ch 15:14; Ps 98:6; Ho 5:8). It was sounded in the year of jubilee (Le 25:9; the Talmudic New-year's day, Mishna, Rosh hash-Shanah, 3, 3), in battle (Job 29:25 [28]; Jer 4:5; Jer 6:1), and by sentinels (Eze 33:6); and had a loud (Isa 58:1) tone like a thunder-peal (Ex 19:16,19). Some writers fail to distinguish this from the preceding kind of trumpet (Credner, Joel, p.164 sq.; Hoffmann, in Warnekros, Hebr. Alterth. p. 598 sq.); both instruments are named in the same connection in 1Ch 15:28; 2Ch 15:14; Ps 98:6; Ho 5; Ho 8 (see Zoega, De Buccwiaa [Lips. 1712]). Jerome (on the passage last cited) clearly distinguishes the shophar: "Buccina pastoralis est et cornu recurvo efficitur, unde et proprie Hebraice shophar, Graece κερατίνη appellatur." According to the Mishna (ut sup.), however, the shophar was sometimes straight and at others crooked (see Doughtei Analect. 1, 99 sq.). Curved horns (as of oxen or sheep) are still common in the synagogue under the same name (שׁוֹפָרוֹת); according to the Gemara (Shabb. 36:1), שׁוֹפָר originally denoted only the curved horn and not until the downfall of the Jewish polity was it confounded with the חֲצוֹצרָה. The second Temple contained thirteen boxes (in the court of the women), shaped like (straight) trumpets (shopharoth), for the deposition of alms (Mishna, Shekal. 6:5). The horn with which the year of jubilee was ushered in is technically called (as above observed) יוֹבֵל , קֶרֶן הִיּוֹבֵלֹ or שׁיֹפִר היּוֹבֵל (Jos 6:4 sq.); and the force of breath required to sound it is denoted by the term מָשִׁך, to
draw out (see Winer's Simonis Lex. p. 394,584; comp. Graser, Kathol. Messe, 1, 107 sq.). SEE CORNET.
As above intimated, the Lord commanded Moses to make two trumpets of beaten silver, for the purpose of calling the people together when they were to decamp (Numbers 10). They chiefly used these trumpets, however, to proclaim the beginning of the civil year, the beginning of the sabbatical year (Le 23:24; Nu 29:1), and the beginning of the jubilee (Le 25:9-10). Josephus says (Ant. 3, 12, 6) that they were near a cubit long, and that their tube or pipe was of the thickness of a common flute. Their mouths were no wider than just admitted to blow into them, and their ends were like those of a modern trumpet. There were originally but two in the camp, though afterwards a great number were made. In the time of Joshua there were seven (Jos 3:4), and at the dedication of the Temple of Solomon there were one hundred and twenty priests that sounded trumpets (2Ch 5:12). The following particulars concerning the use of trumpets in the Temple will be useful, and are collected chiefly from Lightfoot's Temple Service. The trumpets were sounded exclusively by the priests, who stood not in the Levitical choir, but apart, and opposite to the Levites, on the other side of the altar, both parties looking towards it the priests on the west side and the Levites on the east. The trumpets did not join in the concert but were sounded during certain regulated pauses in the vocal and instrumental music. "The manner of their blowing with their trumpets was first a long plain blast, then a blast with breakings and quaverings, and then a long plain blast again. The priests did never blow but these three blasts went together. ... The Jews do express these three several soundings that they made at one blowing by the words (translated) An alarm in the midst, and a plain note before and after it; which our Christian writers do most commonly express by tarantara, though that word seems to put the quavering sound before and after, and the plain in the midst, contrary to the Jewish description of it." SEE NEW YEAR FESTIVAL OF.
⇒Bible concordance for TRUMPET.
In addition to the sacred trumpets of the Temple, whose use was restricted to the priests, even in war and in battle, there were others used by the Hebrew generals (Jg 3:27). Ehud sounded the trumpet to assemble Israel against the Moabites, whose king, Eglon, he had lately slain. Gideon took a trumpet in his hand, and gave each of his people one, when he assaulted the Midianites (Jg 7:2,16). Joab sounded the trumpet as a signal of retreat to his soldiers, in the battle against Abner (2Sa 2:28), in that against Absalom (18:16), and in the pursuit of Sheba, son of Bichri (10, 22). SEE WAR.
In Mt 6:2 we read," When thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues," and most expositors have regarded this as an expression derived by an easy metaphor from the practice of using the trumpet to proclaim whatever was about to be done, in order to call attention to it and make it extensively known. Others, however, refer it to the trumpet-shaped boxes in which the alms were deposited (see above), and which gave a ringing sound as the coin was dropped into them. SEE TEMPLE.
