Bible animals

by J. G. Wood

In our country we have done our best to produce a hornless breed of Sheep, thinking the nutriment which produces the horns can be better expended on the body and fleece, but in the East the horns form an important commodity, and are valued in proportion to their size.

The chief use of the ram's horn was as a vessel in which to carry liquids, especially those which, like oil, were poured out in small quantities. For this purpose a wooden plug was driven tightly into the larger end, so as to close it completely, and frequently covered, in addition, with raw hide, in order to hold it firmly in its place, while the small part of the pointed end was cut off, and the aperture closed with a, small stopper. The old powder-horns which were formerly much used in England, and which even now are employed in Palestine and many other countries, were good examples of this form of vessel.

That the horn was the favourite vessel for carrying oil is seen in many passages of the Scriptures. For example, when Saul was to be superseded by David, Samuel was ordered to fill his horn with oil and go to Jesse's house, 1 Sam. i. 39. The allusion was evidently to a vessel whose ordinary use was the holding of oil. Again, when David named Solomon his son (see 1 Kings i. 39), "Zadok the priest took an horn of oil out of the Tabernacle, and anointed Solomon," the oil being that which was kept in the Tabernacle for sacred purposes, and the ingredients of which were so carefully chosen, for it was to be an "oil of holy ointment, an ointment compounded after the art of the apothecary (or perfumer), which shall be an holy anointing oil" (Ex. xxx. 25).

The horn of the ram had also a national value, as from it were made the sacred trumpets which played so important a part in the history of the Jewish nation. There is no doubt that the primitive trumpets were originally formed either from the horn of an animal, such as the ox, the large-horned antelopes, the sheep, and the goat, and that in process of time they were made of metal, generally copper or silver.

References are frequently made in the Bible to these trumpets, for which there were different names, probably on account of their different forms. These names are, however, very loosely rendered in our version, the same word being sometimes translated the "cornet" and sometimes the "trumpet." Putting aside, however, these points of difference, we have chiefly to remark the fact that trumpets made of rams' horns were ordered by the Mosaic law to be sounded at certain times, and that their notes formed an important part of the ritual.

Each jubilee year, for example, was ushered in by the blasts of the sacred trumpets. "Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land" (Lev. xxv. 9). Then there was the festival known as the Feast of Trumpets. "In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, ye shall have an holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work: it is a day of blowing the trumpets unto you" (Numb. xxix. 1).

Perhaps the most prominent instance of the blowing of the sacred trumpet may be found in the familiar passage in the book of Joshua (ch. vi.) in which is described the fall of Jericho. "Ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go about the city once. This ye shall do six days. And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams' horns (or jubilee cornets); and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets. And it shall come to pass, when they make a long blast with the rams' horns, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him."

Trumpets were also used as signals to the people. "Declare ye in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem, and say, Blow ye the trumpet in the land: cry, gather together and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the defenced cities" (Jer. iv. 5). And on that great and solemn day when the law was given from Mount Sinai the signal to the people was the sound of the trumpet (or cornet, as the word is translated in the margin). "And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled" (Exod. xix. 16).

The Hebrew word which is here translated as "trumpet" is "shofar," which signifies also a horn, and is therefore very rightly translated in the margin and in the Jewish Bible as "cornet." What may have been the shape of the shofar is evident from the fact that the same instrument is used even at the present day in certain parts of the Jewish ritual. One of these trumpets is now before me, and is shown in the accompanying illustration.

In length it measures eighteen inches, i.e. a cubit, and it is formed entirely in one piece. As far as I can judge, it is made from the left horn of the broad-tailed Sheep, which, as has already been remarked, is not spiral, but flattish, curved backwards, and forming nearly a circle, the point passing under the ear. This structure, added to the large size of the horn, adapts it well for its purpose. In order to bring it to the proper shape, the horn is softened by heat, and is then modelled into the very form which was used by the Jewish priests who blew the trumpet before the ark.