Feast of Trumpets

Today marks the beginning of the Biblical Feast of Trumpets, which God commanded Moses and the children of Israel to keep:

Speak unto the children of Israel,

saying, In the seventh month,

in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath,

a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.

Ye shall do no servile work therein:

but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord.

Leviticus 23:24-25

David mentioned this feast:

Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.

Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery.

Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day.

For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob.

This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony, when he went out through the land of Egypt: where I heard a language that I understood not.

I removed his shoulder from the burden: his hands were delivered from the pots.

Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the secret place of thunder: I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah.

Psalm 81:1-7

The prophet Joel uses the illustration of blowing the trumpet:

Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand;

A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.

Joel 2:1-2

The prophet Amos also uses the illustration of blowing a trumpet:

Can two walk together, except they be agreed?

Will a lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey? will a young lion cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing?

Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is for him? shall one take up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing at all?

Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?

Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.

The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?

Amos 3:3-9

The Apostle Paul was instructing the church at Corinth on the proper use and place of the gifts of the Spirit.  In relation to speaking with unknown tongues, he said:

For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?

I Corinthians 14:8

The Apostle John was in the Spirit on the isle of Patmos, he had a vision and related it:

I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,

Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and,

What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.

Revelation 1:10-11

We often get the thought of a silver or brass trumpet in our mind, when we read in the Bible about trumpets. More often than not, however, the concept is a ram's horn. The word in Hebrew is Shofar.  A ram's horn is hollow and doesn't make any sound, unless someone picks it up and puts the mouth piece to their mouth and blows.

It is a prophetic symbol of the voice of God. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. I Thessalonians 4:16

And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.

And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die. Exodus 20:18-19


First, God sends warning, then judgment. Read Revelation chapter 8. The trumpets are a warning of judgment. 10 days following the Feast of Trumpets is the Day of Atonement - a type of the day of judgment.