What is the Significance of the Shofar?

The shofar is a horn, usually made from a ram’s horn,¹ and is considered one of the most ancient instruments.² It has become a well-known symbol associated with the Jewish people and Jewish tradition, particularly with the major Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah.

What does the Bible say about the shofar, and what is the significance of the shofar in Jewish tradition?

The Shofar in the Torah

The first time the Bible mentions the shofar (שׁוֹפָר) is in Exodus. We read in Exodus 19 and 20 that there was a loud shofar blast coming from the heavens when God engulfed Mt. Sinai in smoke, thunder, and lightning, and gave Moses the Ten Commandments (Exodus 19:16–20; 20:18–21).

Later in the Torah, God instructs the Jewish people when to blow the shofar. Israel must observe Yom Teruah (more commonly known as Rosh Hashanah), with a “memorial proclaimed with the blast of trumpets [תְּרוּעָה, teruah]” (Leviticus 23:23–25; cf. Numbers 29:1). On Jubilee years (every fifty years), Israel should sound the shofar ten days later, on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, throughout the land of Israel (Leviticus 25:8–12).³

The Shofar in the Writings and Prophets

In the Writings, the shofar was used primarily for military action or when coronating a new leader in Israel.⁴

Seven priests of Israel each blew shofars when encircling Jericho with the ark. On the seventh day of marching, on the seventh lap around the city, the priests let out a long shofar blast, the people of Israel shouted, and the walls of the city collapsed (Joshua 6).

Famously, Gideon and his three hundred men used the sound of shofar to confuse and defeat the Midianites (Judges 6:24–7:18).⁵ The prophet Jeremiah calls the shofar an “alarm of war” (Jeremiah 4:19).

When David appointed Solomon as the king of Israel, Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet blew the shofar and the people exclaimed, “Long live King Solomon!” (1 Kings 1:34–39).

The Prophets commonly refer to the sounding of the shofar when discussing judgment and the end of days. Ezekiel, Amos, Joel, and Hosea use the shofar to warn the people about coming judgment.⁶ Concerning the end of days, Zechariah says, “Then the Lord will appear over them, and his arrow will go forth like lighting; the Lord God will sound the trumpet…On that day the Lord their God will save them” (Zechariah 9:14–16). Isaiah says, “in that day a great trumpet will be blown,” which would remind Israel of the trumpet sounded from the heavens at Mt. Sinai (Isaiah 27:13 cf. Isaiah 18:3).

The Shofar in the New Testament

Like the Jewish prophets before them, Yeshua (Jesus) and the Jewish authors of the New Testament mention the shofar in apocalyptic contexts. Yeshua says God will “send out his angels with a loud trumpet call” when they gather the elect (Matthew 24:31). Revelation gives details about seven angels who each blow their trumpet declaring the return of King Messiah in chapters 8–11. In 1 Thessalonians, Paul says that Yeshua will return, descending from heaven, “with the sound of the trumpet of God” (1 Thessalonians 4:15–18). In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says that “at the last trumpet…the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:50–52). These trumpets are likely references to shofarim.⁷

Blowing the shofar did not become Christian practice because there is no instruction in the New Testament to blow the shofar. The only instruction in the Bible to blow and hear the shofar is given to the Jewish people. The times the shofar sound is mentioned in the New Testament are sounds from the heavens when Yeshua returns, like the shofar sound from heaven when God gave Israel the Ten Commandments.

The Shofar in Jewish Tradition

Starting on the second day of Elul, the month preceding Rosh Hashanah, it is Jewish tradition to hear the shofar sound every day (except on Shabbat and the last day of the month). Then, the shofar is sounded one hundred times on Rosh Hashanah, also known as Yom Teruah (the Day of Trumpets) and once at the conclusion of Yom Kippur.⁸

There are many Jewish traditions about reasons to blow the shofar. Hearing the loud blast of the shofar also calls to mind the loud trumpet blast heard at Mt. Sinai when God gave the Torah to Israel. The shofar is also seen as a symbol of the ram that Abraham sacrificed on Mt. Moriah in substitute for his son Isaac.⁹

One of the primary reasons for sounding the shofar is to usher in an attitude of deep repentance before Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The great medieval Jewish philosopher Maimonides says,

Even though the sounding of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah is a decree, it contains an allusion. It is as if [the shofar’s call] is saying: Wake up you sleepy ones from your sleep and you who slumber, arise. Inspect your deeds, repent, remember your Creator.¹⁰

In The Minhagim, Abraham Chill summarizes the ten reasons Saadiah Gaon, a great Jewish philosopher from the ninth century, gives for sounding the shofar. The tenth reason is summarized as, “To impress upon us the belief in the resurrection of the dead, which will also be heralded by the shofar sounds in the Messianic era.”¹¹

Just like these great Jewish sages, the New Testament anticipates a great sounding of the shofar when the Messiah comes (that is, when he comes back, in the case of the New Testament), and the dead are raised. Yeshua instructs all to turn away from their sin and find forgiveness and freedom through Him and all who do will experience the world-to-come in harmony with our Creator. “Therefore,” says the New Testament, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Messiah will shine on you” (Ephesians 5:14).

1. According to Jewish tradition, a cow’s horn should not be used because it reminds of the golden calf.
2. Smithsonian Music, “Shofar,” https://music.si.edu/object-day/shofar.
3. Today, Jewish people blow the shofar the evening Yom Kippur concludes to commemorate this instruction and to remember the Jubilee year. https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/3061833/jewish/Why-Blow-Shofar-Following-Neilah-After-Yom-Kippur.htm
4. Psalms 47:6; 81:1–5; 98:1–6; and 150:1–6 mention praising G-d with the sound of the shofar. However, these verses are not understood as commandments to blow the shofar on days other than Rosh Hashanah. Psalm 81:1–5 could be understood as blowing the shofar monthly at the New Moon. However, some Jewish scholars, such as Adin Steinsaltz, understand that this is still a reference to Rosh Hashanah (https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.81.4?lang=bi&p2=Steinsaltz_on_Psalms.81.4&lang2=bi). That said, various traditions of blowing the shofar on days other than Rosh Hashanah have come and gone throughout Jewish history. See Encyclopedia Judaica, “Shofar,” 18:506–508.
5. Similar examples of Israelites leaders using the shofar include Ehud in Judges 3:26–30; Saul in 1 Samuel 13:3–4; David in 2 Samuel 6:12–15.
6. Jeremiah 4:19; Ezekiel 33:4–6; Amos 3:6; Hosea 5:8; 8:1; Joel 2:1, 15.
7. Matthew, Revelation, and Paul use σάλπιγξ (salpinx) for “trumpet,” the same Greek word the Septuagint uses for “shofar” in Leviticus 23:23.
8. The shofar is blown using four distinct blasts: the tekiah (a single long blast), shevarim (three successive medium blasts), teruah (nine successive short blasts), and tekiah gedolah (one long blast that progressively gets louder). Jewish tradition instructs to not blow the shofar on Rosh Hashanah if Rosh Hashanah occurs on Shabbat to protect against carrying the shofar from one domain to another on Shabbat (Rosh Hashanah 29b). When that occurs, the shofar is blown the following day.
9. It is Jewish tradition to read this story in Genesis 22 on Rosh Hashanah.
10. Mishneh Torah, Teshuvah, 3.4. https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/911896/jewish/Teshuvah-Chapter-Three.htm.
11. Abraham Chill, The Minhagim: The Customs and Ceremonies of Judaism, Their Origins and Rationale, (New York: Sepher-Hermon Press, 1979), 190–191.