Numbers 10:9

10:9 If you go to war in your land against an adversary who opposes ¹  you, then you must sound an alarm with the trumpets, and you will be remembered before the Lord your God, and you will be saved ²  from your enemies.

Numbers 10:2

10:2 “Make ³  two trumpets of silver; you are to make ⁴  them from a single hammered piece. ⁵  You will use them ⁶  for assembling the community and for directing the traveling of the camps.

Numbers 13:12-17

13:12 from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli; 13:13 from the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael; 13:14 from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vopshi; 13:15 from the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Maki. 13:16 These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to investigate the land. And Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua. ⁷ 

The Spies’ Instructions

13:17 When Moses sent ⁸  them to investigate the land of Canaan, he told them, “Go up through the Negev, ⁹  and then go up into the hill country

¹ tn Both the “adversary” and “opposes” come from the same root: צָרַר (tsarar), “to hem in, oppress, harass,” or basically, “be an adversary.”

² tn The Niphal perfect in this passage has the passive nuance and not a reflexive idea – the Israelites would be spared because God remembered them.

³ tn The Hebrew text uses what is called the “ethical dative” – “make [for] you two trumpets.” It need not be translated, but can simply be taken to underscore the direct imperative.

⁴ tn The imperfect tense is again instruction or legislation.

⁵ sn The instructions are not clearly spelled out here. But the trumpets were to be made of silver ingots beaten out into a sheet of silver and then bent to form a trumpet. There is archaeological evidence of silver smelting as early as 3000 b.c. Making silver trumpets would have been a fairly easy thing for the Israelites to do. The trumpet would have been straight, with a tapered form, very unlike the “ram’s horn” (שׁוֹפָר, shofar). The trumpets were used by the priests in Israel from the outset, but later were used more widely. The sound would be sharp and piercing, but limited in scope to a few notes. See further C. Sachs, The History of Musical Instruments.

⁶ tn Heb “and they shall be for you for assembling,” which is the way of expressing possession. Here the intent concerns how Moses was to use them.

⁷ sn The difference in the names is slight, a change from “he saves” to “the Lord saves.” The Greek text of the OT used Iesoun for Hebrew Yeshua.

⁸ tn The preterite with vav (ו) consecutive is here subordinated to the next verb of the same formation to express a temporal clause.

⁹ tn The instructions had them first go up into the southern desert of the land, and after passing through that, into the hill country of the Canaanites. The text could be rendered “into the Negev” as well as “through the Negev.”