Matthew Henry on Numbers 10:1-10
We have here directions concerning the public notices that were to be given to the people upon several occasions by sound of trumpet. In a thing of this nature, one would think, Moses needed not to have been taught of God: his own reason might teach him the conveniency of trumpets; but the constitution of Israel was to be in every thing divine, and therefore even in this matter, small as it seems. Moses is here directed, 1. About the making of them. They must be made of silver; not cast but of beaten work (as some read it), the matter and shape, no doubt, very fit for the purpose. He was now ordered to make but two, because there were but two priests to use them. But in Solomon's time we rea…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Numbers 10:3
when they shall blow with them--There seem to have been signals made by a difference in the loudness and variety in the notes, suited for different occasions, and which the Israelites learned to distinguish. A simple uniform sound by both trumpets summoned a general assembly of the people; the blast of a single trumpet convoked the princes to consult on public affairs; notes of some other kind were made to sound an alarm, whether for journeying or for war. One alarm was the recognized signal for the eastern division of the camp (the tribes of Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun) to march; two alarms gave the signal for the southern to move; and, though it is not in our present Hebrew text, the Sept…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Gill on Numbers 10:5
When ye blow an alarm,.... Making a broken, uneven, and quavering sound, which is called a "tara-tan-tara":
then the camps that lie on the east parts shall go forward; the camps of Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun, which lay to the east of the tabernacle, at the front of it; see Numbers 1:3; this was to be the token for their march, which was first of all; Numbers 10:14.
John Calvin on Numbers 10:1-10
