Numbers 10:1-10

The Silver Trumpets

1 The LORD said to Moses:
2 “Make two trumpets of hammered silver, and use them for calling the community together and for having the camps set out.
3 When both are sounded, the whole community is to assemble before you at the entrance to the tent of meeting.
4 If only one is sounded, the leaders—the heads of the clans of Israel—are to assemble before you.
5 When a trumpet blast is sounded, the tribes camping on the east are to set out.
6 At the sounding of a second blast, the camps on the south are to set out. The blast will be the signal for setting out.
7 To gather the assembly, blow the trumpets, but not with the signal for setting out.
8 “The sons of Aaron, the priests, are to blow the trumpets. This is to be a lasting ordinance for you and the generations to come.
9 When you go into battle in your own land against an enemy who is oppressing you, sound a blast on the trumpets. Then you will be remembered by the LORD your God and rescued from your enemies.
10 Also at your times of rejoicing—your appointed festivals and New Moon feasts—you are to sound the trumpets over your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, and they will be a memorial for you before your God. I am the LORD your God.”

Numbers 10:1-10 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 10

This chapter gives an account of the directions given for making two silver trumpets, and of the use of them, the ends and purposes for which they were to be made, Nu 10:1-10; and of the time of taking up of the cloud from the tabernacle, and of the removal of the camp of Israel from the wilderness of Sinai, and of the order of their march, Nu 10:11-28; when Moses most earnestly passed Hobab, his brother in law, to continue with him, Nu 10:29-32; and the chapter is closed with the prayer of Moses at the setting forward of the ark, and the resting of it, Nu 10:33-36.

Cross References 18

  • 1. ver 8,9; Numbers 31:6; Nehemiah 12:35; Psalms 47:5; Psalms 98:6; Psalms 150:3
  • 2. Nehemiah 4:18; Jeremiah 4:5,19; Jeremiah 6:1; Hosea 5:8; Hosea 8:1; Joel 2:1,15; Amos 3:6
  • 3. Numbers 33:3
  • 4. S Exodus 18:21; Numbers 1:16; Numbers 7:2
  • 5. ver 14
  • 6. ver 18
  • 7. Jeremiah 4:5; Jeremiah 6:1; Ezekiel 33:3; Joel 2:1
  • 8. 1 Corinthians 14:8
  • 9. S Genesis 9:12; Numbers 15:14; Numbers 35:29; Numbers 31:6
  • 10. Exodus 3:9; Judges 2:18; Judges 6:9; 1 Samuel 10:18; 2 Kings 13:4; Psalms 106:42
  • 11. S Leviticus 23:24
  • 12. S Genesis 8:1
  • 13. 2 Chronicles 13:12; Psalms 106:4
  • 14. Numbers 28:11; 1 Samuel 20:5,24; 2 Kings 4:23; 2 Chronicles 8:13; Psalms 81:3; Isaiah 1:13; Ezekiel 45:17; Ezekiel 46:6; Amos 8:5
  • 15. S Leviticus 23:24
  • 16. Leviticus 1:3
  • 17. Leviticus 3:1; Numbers 6:14
  • 18. Leviticus 11:44
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