Psalms 98:6

98:6 With trumpets and the blaring of the ram’s horn,

shout out praises before the king, the Lord!

Numbers 10:1-9

The Blowing of Trumpets

10:1 ¹ The Lord spoke to Moses: 10:2 “Make ²  two trumpets of silver; you are to make ³  them from a single hammered piece. ⁴  You will use them ⁵  for assembling the community and for directing the traveling of the camps. 10:3 When ⁶  they blow ⁷  them both, all the community must come ⁸  to you to the entrance of the tent of meeting.

10:4 “But if they blow with one trumpet, then the leaders, the heads of the thousands of Israel, must come to you. ⁹  10:5 When you blow an alarm, ¹⁰  then the camps that are located ¹¹  on the east side must begin to travel. ¹²  10:6 And when you blow an alarm the second time, then the camps that are located on the south side must begin to travel. ¹³  An alarm must be sounded ¹⁴  for their journeys. 10:7 But when you assemble the community, ¹⁵  you must blow, but you must not sound an alarm. ¹⁶  10:8 The sons of Aaron, the priests, must blow the trumpets; and they will be to you for an eternal ordinance throughout your generations. 10:9 If you go to war in your land against an adversary who opposes ¹⁷  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 ¹⁸  from your enemies.

Numbers 10:1

The Blowing of Trumpets

10:1 ¹⁹ The Lord spoke to Moses:

Numbers 15:24

15:24 then if anything is done unintentionally ²⁰  without the knowledge of ²¹  the community, the whole community must prepare one young bull for a burnt offering – for a pleasing aroma to the Lord – along with its grain offering and its customary drink offering, and one male goat for a purification offering.

Numbers 16:6

16:6 Do this, Korah, you and all your company: ²²  Take censers,

Numbers 16:42

16:42 When the community assembled ²³  against Moses and Aaron, they turned toward the tent of meeting – and ²⁴  the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared.

Numbers 16:2

16:2 and rebelled against Moses, along with some of the Israelites, 250 leaders ²⁵  of the community, chosen from the assembly, ²⁶  famous men. ²⁷ 

Numbers 5:12

5:12 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘If any man’s wife goes astray and behaves unfaithfully toward him,

Numbers 13:12

13:12 from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli;

Numbers 13:14

13:14 from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vopshi;

[10:1]  ¹ sn Here we have a short section (10:1-10) dealing with the regulations for blowing trumpets in times of war or in times of peace.

[10:2]  ² 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.

[10:2]  ³ tn The imperfect tense is again instruction or legislation.

[10:2]  ⁴ 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.

[10:2]  ⁵ 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.

[10:3]  ⁶ tn The perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive is here subordinated as a temporal clause to the following similar verbal construction.

[10:3]  ⁷ tn The verb תָקַע (taqa’) means “to strike, drive, blow a trumpet.”

[10:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “the assembly shall assemble themselves.”

[10:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “they shall assemble themselves.”

[10:5]  ¹⁰ tn The word for an alarm is תְּרוּעָה (tÿru’ah). The root verb of this word means “to give a blast on the trumpet.” It may also on occasion mean “give a shout” in battle (Josh 6:10). In this passage it must refer to the sound of the trumpet.

[10:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the camps that are camping.”

[10:5]  ¹² tn The perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive functions as the equivalent of the imperfect tense. Here the emphasis is on the start of the journey.

[10:6]  ¹³ tc The MT does not mention the departures of the northerly and westerly tribes. The Greek text completes the description by adding them, making a full schedule of the departure of the groups of tribes. The Greek is not likely to be original, however, since it carries all the signs of addition to complete the text, making a smooth, full reading. The MT is to be preferred; it apparently used two of the groups to give the idea.

[10:6]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew text has “they shall blow an alarm”; the sentence without a formal subject should be taken as a passive idea.

[10:7]  ¹⁵ tn There is no expressed subject in the initial temporal clause. It simply says, “and in the assembling the assembly.” But since the next verb is the second person of the verb, that may be taken as the intended subject here.

[10:7]  ¹⁶ sn The signal for moving camp was apparently different in tone and may have been sharper notes or a different sequence. It was in some way distinguishable.

[10:9]  ¹⁷ tn Both the “adversary” and “opposes” come from the same root: צָרַר (tsarar), “to hem in, oppress, harass,” or basically, “be an adversary.”

[10:9]  ¹⁸ 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.

[10:1]  ¹⁹ sn Here we have a short section (10:1-10) dealing with the regulations for blowing trumpets in times of war or in times of peace.

[15:24]  ²⁰ tn The idea of לִשְׁגָגָה (lishgagah) seems to be that of “inadvertence” or “without intent.” The text gives no indication of how this offense might be committed, or what it might include. It probably describes any transgressions done in ignorance of the Law that involved a violation of tabernacle procedure or priestly protocol or social misdemeanor. Even though it was done unintentionally, it was still a violation and called for ritual purification.

[15:24]  ²¹ tn Heb “[away] from the eyes of the community.”

[16:6]  ²² tn Heb “his congregation” or “his community.” The expression is unusual, but what it signifies is that Korah had set up a rival “Israel” with himself as leader.

[16:42]  ²³ tn The temporal clause is constructed with the temporal indicator (“and it was”) followed by the Niphal infinitive construct and preposition.

[16:42]  ²⁴ tn The verse uses וְהִנֵּה (vÿhinneh, “and behold”). This is the deictic particle – it is used to point things out, suddenly calling attention to them, as if the reader were there. The people turned to look toward the tent – and there is the cloud!

[16:2]  ²⁵ tn Heb “princes” (so KJV, ASV).

[16:2]  ²⁶ tn These men must have been counselors or judges of some kind.

[16:2]  ²⁷ tn Heb “men of name,” or “men of renown.”