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Feasts and festivals
New moons and the Feast of Trumpets
Hebrew rosh chodesh (new month), yom teruah (day of blasts) · 1 Tishri, September or October
Israel’s months were lunar: each began with the new moon, about every 29½ days, so twelve months made about 354 days and an extra month had to be added from time to time. The day of the new moon was a feast, with burnt offerings of two young bulls, a ram and seven lambs (Numbers 28:11), and trumpets were blown over the offerings (Numbers 10:10). Work and trade stopped: Amos quotes merchants waiting for the New Moon to be over so they could sell grain (Amos 8:5). At King Saul’s new-moon meal, David’s empty seat was noticed (1 Samuel 20:27).
The new moon of the seventh month, later called Tishri, in September or October, was a day of its own: “a day of rest, a sacred assembly announced by trumpet blasts” (Leviticus 23:24). On that day after the exile, Ezra read the law to the assembly in Jerusalem, and the people were told to eat rich food and send portions to those who had none (Nehemiah 8:2, 10). In later Jewish tradition the day became Rosh Hashanah, the New Year, when the ram’s horn, the shofar, is blown.
Key verses
And on your joyous occasions, your appointed feasts, and the beginning of each month, you are to blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to serve as a reminder for you before your God. I am the LORD your God.”At the beginning of every month, you are to present to the LORD a burnt offering of two young bulls, one ram, and seven male lambs a year old, all unblemished,But on the day after the New Moon, the second day, David’s place was still empty, and Saul asked his son Jonathan, “Why hasn’t the son of Jesse come to the meal either yesterday or today?”asking, “When will the New Moon be over, that we may sell grain? When will the Sabbath end, that we may market wheat? Let us reduce the ephah and increase the shekel; let us cheat with dishonest scales.“Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly announced by trumpet blasts.On the first day of the seventh month, Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly of men and women and all who could listen and understand.Sources
Adapted and shortened from the Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0
Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary © 2023 Tyndale House Publishers · CC BY-SA 4.0 — Feasts and Festivals of Israel: Preexilic Festivals; Calendars, Ancient and Modern: Months; Calendars, Ancient and Modern: Jewish Festivals; New Moon; Trumpets, Festival of
Adapted from Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary: articles chosen, shortened and retold in our own words (history, nature and daily life only) and, in languages other than English, machine-translated. The original work by Tyndale House Publishers is available for free at tyndaleopenresources.com.
