Feast of Trumpets — Yom Teruah

Part of the seventh-month feasts — see 00 — The Feasts Overview.

The governing texts

Leviticus 23:23–25 (KJV)

²³ And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
²⁴ Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.
²⁵ Ye shall do no servile work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.

Numbers 29:1–6 (KJV)

¹ And 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.
² And ye shall offer a burnt offering for a sweet savour unto the LORD; one young bullock, one ram, and seven lambs of the first year without blemish:
³ And their meat offering shall be of flour mingled with oil, three tenth deals for a bullock, and two tenth deals for a ram,
⁴ And one tenth deal for one lamb, throughout the seven lambs:
⁵ And one kid of the goats for a sin offering, to make an atonement for you:
⁶ Beside the burnt offering of the month... a sacrifice made by fire unto the LORD.

The requirements of the day

The Law lays out these requirements (Leviticus 23:23–25; Numbers 29:1–6):

1. A holy convocation — a consecrated, summoned assembly (miqra qodesh; see the terminology in 00 — The Feasts Overview) — Leviticus 23:24; Numbers 29:1.
2. A sabbath — rest — "shall ye have a sabbath" (Leviticus 23:24).
3. No servile work — Leviticus 23:25; Numbers 29:1.
4. The blowing of trumpets — "a memorial of blowing of trumpets" (Leviticus 23:24); "a day of blowing the trumpets" (Numbers 29:1).
5. An offering made by fire (Leviticus 23:25; Numbers 29:2–5):
   • Burnt offering — one young bullock, one ram, seven lambs of the first year without blemish (Numbers 29:2)
   • Meat (meal) offering — flour mingled with oil: three tenth deals for the bullock, two for the ram, one per lamb (Numbers 29:3–4)
   • Sin offering — one kid of the goats, "to make an atonement for you" (Numbers 29:5)
6. Added on top of the standing offerings — this day's sacrifice is beside the new-moon (monthly) offering and the daily continual offering, with their drink offerings (Numbers 29:6; cf. Numbers 28:11–15; 28:3–8). Three layers rise together on this day: the daily, the monthly new moon, and the feast.

What we do on the day — and what it means for us

Taking the requirements one by one — not to perform them, but to ask what each means for us:

A holy convocation — set a day apart for the Lord.
Miqra qodesh is to consecrate, to separate. For us, it is to mark one day out from all the rest and give it wholly to Him.

The rest — rest in the Lord.
The sabbath-rest was a gift of love. Israel had come out of Egypt, where they served without rest, so the Lord had to show them they did not have to work — on this day He let them do no work at all, a complete rest, teaching a once-enslaved people that laying the labour down is His gift, not their loss.

What is that rest for us? I think it is laying down the things we carry — the worries we keep turning over, the striving to be someone we are not — and coming to Him as we are. Perhaps we have been selfish all our days; here is a day we lay that down. It is meant to bleed into all of life, but the holy day is marked as a reminder for us to actually do it.

Shadow: the sabbath-rest given to a people once worked without rest.
Fulfilment: the rest that remains for the people of God — "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God" (Hebrews 4:9).

And this rest is not for the one day alone — it is meant to become the ground of our daily life. This is why the Lord keeps calling it His rest — "my rest" (Psalm 95:11) — the rest His people are still to enter: "Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest" (Hebrews 4:11; and the rest of Jacob — see Runner, Messenger, Watchman and the Rest of Jacob). And as you come to dwell within that rest, you shall have "the peace of God, which passeth all understanding" (Philippians 4:7) — a peace not for a day but continual, kept daily, "in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee" (Isaiah 26:3).

The blowing of the trumpet — sound the call, together.
The blast announces; and now we can sound it together, as a people.

The offering made by fire — bring yourself.
Israel brought the burnt offering — seven lambs, one ram, one young bullock, of the first year, without blemish — a sweet savour unto the LORD, with the meal offering and a sin offering. We bring no animals now: Christ is our offering, once for all (Hebrews 10:10, 14). But the pattern still teaches us to present ourselves — "present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God" (Romans 12:1).

How we keep it — the gathering of the saints.
We keep it by coming together; it becomes an occasion for the gathering of the saints — to remember, to learn, to prepare our hearts, and to seek what the Lord is speaking.

Digging deeper — the day itself and how we keep it are above. What follows opens up the when, the where in the story, the trumpet, and the new moon.

The seventh month in our times (September–October)

The seventh month is Tishri — September–October for us (Tishri 1 begins at sundown, 11 September 2026). It's the seventh because the year starts back at Nisan in the spring (Exodus 12:2), so we're in autumn now, harvest time, the year being gathered in. Notice the number seven — the number of completion.

Not a standalone feast — the feasts tell one story

Trumpets opens the seventh-month feasts, and they move as one narrative:

1. Feast of Trumpets (Leviticus 23:23–25) — the announcement of the King.
2. Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23:26–32) — the day of judgment, and atonement for those who receive it.
3. Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:33–43) — the gathering to the Father's house, to dwell with Him.

The trumpet sounds first; it summons the assembly toward Atonement ten days later, and Atonement opens into the dwelling of Tabernacles. This all begins with the trumpet.

The uses of the trumpet — one instrument, many calls

The trumpet has many different uses across Scripture — the war alarm, the watchman's warning, the coronation of a king, the announcing of the LORD's coming, the calling of the assembly, the proclaiming of liberty at Jubilee, and the raising of the dead at the last trump. When the Feast of Trumpets sounds, all of these gather into one blast.

See the full list, with references: Uses of the Trumpet.

But for this feast, one use stands at the centre and governs the rest: the trumpet is the announcement of the King.

Before the trumpet sounds — preparing the way

Before the King is announced, the road is to be made ready.

This is the pattern Isaiah gives: Isaiah 40:3–4 — "Prepare ye the way of the LORD... Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low." The road for the King is levelled — the mountain brought low, the valley raised up, the crooked made straight — so that when He comes the way is clear. For the coming of the King to come, the way must first be prepared. These are the things that must happen before the trumpet sounds.

See more: Prepare the Way.

The New Moon

Trumpets is set at the beginning of the month — Tishri 1, the new moon, when the light is only a first sliver returning after the dark. That is the sign of it: the start of a new thing, a new light entering — the coming of the King.

Most of the other feasts fall at mid-month, under the full moon — Unleavened Bread on Nisan 15, Tabernacles on Tishri 15 — kept in the fullness of the light, the light of the day and the light of the night together.

So at Trumpets the Lord comes as a light into darkness, the new light breaking in; the feasts that follow are kept under that light, once it has already come.

The two witnesses and the hidden hour — the day no man knows

That new moon is also why the day's hour could not be fixed. By tradition (Mishnah, Rosh Hashanah), the new month was declared only after two witnesses came before the court and testified that they had seen the first sliver. They kept their watch in the night, and no one could name the hour it would appear — cloud might hide it, and the moon comes when it comes. Until the testimony was received and confirmed, the day could not be announced; so its beginning was never known in advance.

This is the picture behind Jesus words:

• Deuteronomy 19:15 — "at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established."
• Matthew 24:36 — "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." (cf. Mark 13:32)
• Matthew 24:42–44 — "Watch therefore... therefore be ye also ready."
• 1 Thessalonians 5:2 — "the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night."
• Revelation 11:3 — "And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy..."

But "as a thief in the night" does not mean the season is unknown — it means the hour is hidden. The children of light are not caught out, because they read the season:

• 1 Thessalonians 5:1–5 — "...ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light..."
• The fig tree — Matthew 24:32–33 — "when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors."
• The signs of the season — Matthew 24:4–5, 11–12, 24 — "many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many... iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold... false Christs, and false prophets."

So we know the season — deception, false prophets, love grown cold — and we are told to keep watch. In that season we have a work: to usher in the coming of the King, for the word of the Lord has come — part of which is to Prepare the Way.

Shadow: the new moon of the seventh month, unknowable until two witnesses testify, then proclaimed with the trumpet blast.
Fulfilment: the King proclaimed after two witnesses — the two of Revelation 11:3 who prophesy before the end — for when the last trumpet sounds, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever" (Revelation 11:15). He comes on a day no man knows, in a season only the watchful can keep watch.