שֹׁפָר
sho.phar
trumpet
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# Shofar: The Hebrew Trumpet The Hebrew word *shofar* (שׁוֹפָר) refers to a trumpet, appearing 72 times throughout the Hebrew Bible. Based on the frequency and distribution of this term, the shofar was clearly an established and significant instrument in ancient Israelite society rather than a rare or specialized object. The consistent translation as "trumpet" indicates the shofar functioned as a wind instrument, likely used for acoustic signaling and communication across distance. With 72 occurrences, the word appears with sufficient regularity to suggest the shofar served multiple contexts—whether ceremonial, military, or religious—making it a familiar element of biblical-era life. The instrument's prominence in the textual record suggests it held meaningful cultural or functional importance to the communities that produced these texts, though the lexicon entry alone does not specify those particular contexts or occasions of use.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
72 total occurrences across the text — showing 50
Among the builders, everyone wore his sword at his side, and so built. He who sounded the trumpet was by me.
Nehemiah 4:20Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally there to us. Our God will fight for us.”
Job 39:24He eats up the ground with fierceness and rage, neither does he stand still at the sound of the trumpet.
Job 39:25As often as the trumpet sounds he snorts, ‘Aha!’ He smells the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.
Psalms 47:5God has gone up with a shout, Yahweh with the sound of a trumpet.
Psalms 81:3Blow the trumpet at the New Moon, at the full moon, on our feast day.
Psalms 98:6With trumpets and sound of the ram’s horn, make a joyful noise before the King, Yahweh.
Psalms 150:3Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet! Praise him with harp and lyre!
Isaiah 18:3All you inhabitants of the world, and you dwellers on the earth, when a banner is lifted up on the mountains, look! When the trumpet is blown, listen!
Isaiah 27:13It will happen in that day that a great trumpet will be blown; and those who were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and those who were outcasts in the land of Egypt, shall come; and they will worship Yahweh in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.
Isaiah 58:1“Cry aloud! Don’t spare! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Declare to my people their disobedience, and to the house of Jacob their sins.
Jeremiah 4:5Declare in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, ‘Blow the trumpet in the land!’ Cry aloud and say, ‘Assemble yourselves! Let’s go into the fortified cities!’
Jeremiah 4:19My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart! My heart trembles within me. I can’t hold my peace, because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
Jeremiah 4:21How long will I see the standard and hear the sound of the trumpet?
Jeremiah 6:1“Flee for safety, you children of Benjamin, out of the middle of Jerusalem! Blow the trumpet in Tekoa and raise up a signal on Beth Haccherem, for evil looks out from the north with a great destruction.
Jeremiah 6:17I set watchmen over you, saying, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But they said, ‘We will not listen!’
Jeremiah 42:14saying, “No; but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we will see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread; and there will we dwell:” ’
Jeremiah 51:27“Set up a standard in the land! Blow the trumpet among the nations! Prepare the nations against her! Call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz! Appoint a marshal against her! Cause the horses to come up as the rough canker worm!
Ezekiel 33:3if, when he sees the sword come on the land, he blows the trumpet, and warns the people;
Ezekiel 33:4then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet, and doesn’t heed the warning, if the sword comes, and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head.
Ezekiel 33:5He heard the sound of the trumpet, and didn’t take warning. His blood will be on him; whereas if he had heeded the warning, he would have delivered his soul.
Ezekiel 33:6But if the watchman sees the sword come, and doesn’t blow the trumpet, and the people aren’t warned, and the sword comes, and takes any person from among them; he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.’
Hosea 5:8“Blow the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah! Sound a battle cry at Beth Aven, behind you, Benjamin!
Hosea 8:1“Put the trumpet to your lips! Something like an eagle is over Yahweh’s house, because they have broken my covenant, and rebelled against my law.
Joel 2:1Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of Yahweh comes, for it is close at hand:
Joel 2:15Blow the trumpet in Zion! Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly.
Amos 2:2but I will send a fire on Moab, and it will devour the palaces of Kerioth; and Moab will die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet;
Amos 3:6Does the trumpet alarm sound in a city, without the people being afraid? Does evil happen to a city, and Yahweh hasn’t done it?
Zephaniah 1:16a day of the trumpet and alarm, against the fortified cities, and against the high battlements.
Zechariah 9:14Yahweh will be seen over them; and his arrow will go flash like lightning; and the Lord Yahweh will blow the trumpet, and will go with whirlwinds of the south.
Exodus 19:16On the third day, when it was morning, there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the sound of an exceedingly loud trumpet; and all the people who were in the camp trembled.
Exodus 19:19When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice.
Exodus 20:18All the people perceived the thunderings, the lightnings, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking. When the people saw it, they trembled, and stayed at a distance.
Leviticus 25:9Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land.
Leviticus 25:9Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land.
Joshua 6:20So the people shouted and the priests blew the trumpets. When the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted with a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight in front of him, and they took the city.
Joshua 6:4Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. On the seventh day, you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets.
Joshua 6:4Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. On the seventh day, you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets.
Joshua 6:5It shall be that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the city wall shall fall down flat, and the people shall go up, every man straight in front of him.”
Joshua 6:6Joshua the son of Nun called the priests, and said to them, “Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before Yahweh’s ark.”
Joshua 6:8It was so, that when Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before Yahweh advanced and blew the trumpets, and the ark of Yahweh’s covenant followed them.
Joshua 6:8It was so, that when Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before Yahweh advanced and blew the trumpets, and the ark of Yahweh’s covenant followed them.
Joshua 6:9The armed men went before the priests who blew the trumpets, and the ark went after them. The trumpets sounded as they went.
Joshua 6:9The armed men went before the priests who blew the trumpets, and the ark went after them. The trumpets sounded as they went.
Joshua 6:13The seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams’ horns in front of Yahweh’s ark went on continually, and blew the trumpets. The armed men went in front of them. The rear guard came after Yahweh’s ark. The trumpets sounded as they went.
Joshua 6:13The seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams’ horns in front of Yahweh’s ark went on continually, and blew the trumpets. The armed men went in front of them. The rear guard came after Yahweh’s ark. The trumpets sounded as they went.
Joshua 6:13The seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams’ horns in front of Yahweh’s ark went on continually, and blew the trumpets. The armed men went in front of them. The rear guard came after Yahweh’s ark. The trumpets sounded as they went.
Joshua 6:16At the seventh time, when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout, for Yahweh has given you the city!
Joshua 6:20So the people shouted and the priests blew the trumpets. When the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted with a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight in front of him, and they took the city.
Judges 3:27When he had come, he blew a trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim; and the children of Israel went down with him from the hill country, and he led them.