II. WIND INSTRUMENTS.—There is, happily, less difficulty with respect to instruments of this class than with respect to stringed instruments. The most ordinary division of these is into trum pets and pipes, of which the Hebrews had both, and of various kinds.
. in2 keren, 'horn,' sometimes, but not often, occurs as the name of a musical instrument (Josh. vi. 5 ; 1 Chron. xxv. 5 ; Dan. iii. 5, 7, Jo, 15). Of natural horns, and of instruments in the shape of horns, the antiquity and general use are evinced by every extensive collection of antiquities. It is admitted that natural horns were at first used, and that they at length came to be imitated in metal, but were still called horns. This use and applica tion of the word are illustrated in our cornet.' It is generally conceived that rams' horns were the instruments used by the early Hebrews ; and these are, indeed, expressly named in our own and many other versions, as the instruments used at the noted siege of Jericho (Josh. vi. 5) ; and the horns are those of the ram, which Josephus assigns to the soldiers of Gideon (Alitiq. v. 6. 5 ; comp. Judg. vii. 16).
The former of these passages requires some re mark. The text is 7=11 rp, keren jobel or jobel. horn. It is admitted that Jobe' means the jubilee, and in that case it would be jubilee-horn ; and in the other verses of the chapter where trumpets are mentioned, with the epithet jobelim affixed, to de note jubilee-trumpets. But then the translation rams' horn,' in verse 5, is sought to be justified on the ground that the jubilee itself took its name from the instruments with which it was proclaimed, and as these instruments are believed to have been rams' horns, the term has so been rendered in this text. In other words, the argument stands thus :— I. The jubilee was named from the instruments by which it was proclaimed. 2. These instruments were rams' horns. 3. Therefore jobel means a ram. It is, however, admitted that a ram is never called jobel in Hebrew : and an anecdote of R. Akiba im plies that it was derived from an Arabian source. When I was in Arabia,' he says, I heard them call a ram jobel; and the trumpet itself is called jobel, because made of rams' horn.' It would be better, however, to translate it jubilee-horn' (see below, sec. 4). The text is not necessary to show that rams' horns were in use ; the general belief of the Jews on the subject, and the existence of sculp tured figures of ancient instruments imitated from the horns of rams, if not actually rams' horns, bring good evidence in favour of this opinion. Bochart, and a few others, contest this conclusion, on the ground that rams' horns are not suited to the purpose, and that the Greeks and Romans used the horns of neat cattle. Neither of these positions is tenable or of much weight, and the probability seems to be that keren was first, in its widest acceptation, the general name for instru ments of the horn kind, and also the particular name for rams' horns, or the more crooked kind of horns, and were thus distinguished from the 2. Vci, shothar, which is a far more common
word than keren, and is rendered trumpet' in the A. V. This word seems, first, to denote horns of the straighter kind, including, probably, those of neat cattle, and all the instruments which were eventually made in imitation of and in ment upon such horns. It is, however, difficult to draw a distinction between it and the keren, seeing that the words are sometimes used synony mously. Thus that which is called a jobel-horn' in Josh. vi. 5, is in the same chapter (ver. 4, 6, S, 13), called a jobel-horn trumpet' (shaphar). Upon the whole, we may take the shophar, however distinguished from the keren, to have been that kind of horn or horn-shaped trumpet which was best known to the Hebrews. The name shophar means bright or clear, and the instrument may be conceived to have been so called from its clear and shrill sound, just as we call an instrument a clarion,' and speak of a musical tone as `brilliant' or clear.' In the service of God this shophar or trumpet was only employed in making announce ments, and for calling the people together in the time of the holy solemnities, of war, of rebellion, or of any other great occasion (Exod. xix. 13 ; Num. x. to ; Judg. Hi. 27 ; I Sam. xiii. 3 ; 2 Chron. xv. 14 ; Is. xviii. 3). The strong sound of the instrument would have confounded a choir of singers, rather than have elevated their music. At feasts, and exhibitions of joy, horns and trumpets were not forgotten (2 Sam. vi. 15 ; I Chron. xvi. 42). There is no reason to conclude that the trumpet was an instrument peculiar to the Levites, as some have supposed. If that were the case we should be unable to account for the 30o trumpets with which Gideon's men were furnished (Judg. vii. 8), and for the use of trumpets in making signals by watchmen, who were not always Levites. In Matt. vi. 2, we read, When thou dost thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues, and in the streets, that they may have glory of men.' This verse has excited some speculation, and many have sought to illustrate it by reference to the custom of Eastern beggars of attracting atten tion by means of a musical instrument—a usage which, indeed, exists in England. But here it is the donor and not the beggar who is enjoined not to sound a trumpet ; and Lightfoot, after examin ing the matter with his usual care, confesses that he can find no trace in the whole range of He brew literature, of a trumpet being sounded in connection with public or private almsgiving (Ilor. Hebr. on Matt. vi. 2). It is therefore safest to suppose the expression derived by an easy meta phor from the practice of using the trumpet to proclaim whatever was about to be done, in order to call attention to it and make it extensively known.