A cornet (as giving a clear sound) or curved horn
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The Hebrew noun shophar names a curved horn used as a signaling and musical instrument. Its sound appears at Sinai, in battle narratives, royal announcements, worship, festival observance, prophetic warning, the Jubilee proclamation, and visions of restoration or judgment.
Reader summary
Full entry for שׁוֹפָר (H7782) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Hebrew noun shophar names a curved horn used as a signaling and musical instrument. Its sound appears at Sinai, in battle narratives, royal announcements, worship, festival observance, prophetic warning, the Jubilee proclamation, and visions of restoration or judgment.
The BSB source-word alignment has 72 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include the ram’s horn (19), of the horn (9), of the ram’s horn (8), the horns (5), vvv (4).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Exodus 19:16. Its strongest book concentrations include Joshua (14), Judges (10), Jeremiah (7), 2 Samuel (6).
The Hebrew noun shophar names a curved horn used as a signaling and musical instrument. Its sound appears at Sinai, in battle narratives, royal announcements, worship, festival observance, prophetic warning, the Jubilee proclamation, and visions of restoration or judgment. The instrument can summon people, communicate danger, mark public action, or accompany praise, but the sound does not carry one automatic spiritual effect.
Joshua's use at Jericho belongs to a specific divine command and cannot be copied as a technique for defeating opponents. Prophetic watchman texts stress responsibility to sound a warning, yet they do not authorize alarmism, false emergency claims, or control through fear. Leviticus connects the horn with a covenantally ordered proclamation of liberty, while Psalms place it among instruments of worship.
Responsible teaching identifies the agent, audience, signal, covenant setting, and response. It rejects the idea that a horn blast summons God, breaks demons mechanically, guarantees victory, validates a modern prophet, or turns noise into spiritual authority.
Shophar names a horn used for covenant revelation, warning, battle signals, royal announcement, Jubilee liberty, festival observance, worship, and prophetic hope, with each setting governing the sound's meaning.
And as the sound of the ram’s horn grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him in the thunder.
The trumpet sound grows louder at Sinai as Moses speaks and God answers within the covenant revelation.
Then you are to sound the horn far and wide on the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement. You shall sound it throughout your land.
The horn is sounded throughout the land on the Day of Atonement to announce the Jubilee year.
There Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet are to anoint him king over Israel. You are to blow the ram’s horn and declare, ‘Long live King Solomon!’
Priest and prophet anoint Solomon, and the trumpet signal accompanies the public declaration that he is king.
And he sees the sword coming against that land and blows the ram’s horn to warn the people.
The watchman sees danger and sounds the horn to warn the people in Ezekiel's accountability analogy.
With trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn shout for joy before the Lord, the King.
Trumpets and the ram's horn join a joyful shout before the Lord, the King, in creation praise.
And in that day a great ram’s horn will sound, and those who were perishing in Assyria will come forth with those who were exiles in Egypt. And they will worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.
A great trumpet marks prophetic restoration as scattered worshipers come to worship the Lord in Jerusalem.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Rams' horn instrument signaling divine assembly, covenant renewal, and eschatological judgment throughout Israel's religious life
Rams' horn instrument signaling divine assembly, covenant renewal, and eschatological judgment throughout Israel's religious life
a cornet (as giving a clear sound) or curved horn BDB: horn Usage: cornet, trumpet.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 72 lexical occurrence verses.
שׁוֹפָר is built from this root:
Signals divine summons to regathered worship.Hosea 5:8-15
Signals alarm of invasion and covenant judgment.Hosea 8:1-7
Signals urgent covenant alarm.Isaiah 27:7-13
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Shophar is an instrument of communication whose meaning comes from the event it serves. At Sinai, the intensifying sound belongs to God's covenant revelation and cannot be manufactured by reproducing a horn tone. Leviticus uses the horn to announce Jubilee liberty in Israel's ordered calendar. First Kings places a trumpet beside Solomon's public anointing, while Ezekiel's watchman analogy highlights the duty to communicate real danger clearly.
Psalm 98 welcomes horns into joyful worship before the Lord as King, and Isaiah envisions a great trumpet accompanying the gathering of scattered worshipers. Battle narratives add other specific uses, but they do not make horn blowing a timeless method for gaining territory or defeating spiritual enemies. Faithful application values clear warnings, trustworthy public signals, accountable leaders, and musical praise.
It also tests whether an alleged alarm corresponds to evidence and rightful authority. Leaders must not create panic, claim special revelation, or use volume to bypass discernment. The horn can carry a message, but it is never the source of God's power, covenant, victory, or presence.
Ezek.33.3
Shophar is a masculine Hebrew noun for a curved horn, often a ram's horn, used as an audible signal or musical instrument. Verbs of blowing, sounding, hearing, and shouting plus the narrative or ritual setting identify its role.
The New Testament uses trumpet imagery in warnings, resurrection hope, gathering, and apocalyptic scenes through Greek vocabulary. Those passages continue signal themes but do not make every shophar occurrence a prediction or authorize modern ritual control of end-time events.