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Maybe you’ve been waiting on something for so long that you’ve stopped mentioning it. A diagnosis. A job. A child. A call from someone who went quiet. You still carry it every day. But you’ve gone quiet about it too, because saying it out loud again feels like asking to be let down.
At sundown on Friday, 11 September 2026, Jewish families around the world begin Rosh Hashanah, and many will hear a horn blown again and again. The Bible’s older name for that day is the Feast of Trumpets. And if you go looking for what the Feast of Trumpets is actually about, you’ll find something strange. The Bible gives it one short command, and never says why.
That silence turns out to be the most interesting thing about it. Especially if you’re still waiting.
What Is the Feast of Trumpets? What Leviticus Actually Says
Here is the whole instruction, where it first appears:
“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.”
Leviticus 23:24
The next verse adds only this: no ordinary work, and “an offering made by fire unto the LORD” (Leviticus 23:25). Numbers 29:1 repeats it: “it is a day of blowing the trumpets unto you.” Then Numbers lists the offerings. That’s all.
Now look at the feasts around it. Passover comes with a whole story in Exodus 12. The Feast of Tabernacles, a few verses later in the same chapter, comes with its reason spelled out. Israel lives in booths “That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 23:43).
The Feast of Trumpets gets no story. It is called “a memorial.” But the text never says of what.
And here is something the English hides. In Leviticus 23:24 the Hebrew words are zikhron teruah: “a memorial of teruah.” There is no word for trumpet in the verse at all. Most English translations add “trumpets” to help it make sense. Young’s Literal Translation, which tries to follow the Hebrew word for word, simply says “a memorial of shouting.” Numbers 29:1 calls it yom teruah, “a day of teruah.”
So the day doesn’t even name its instrument. Jewish practice has long used the shofar, a ram’s horn. But what the Bible actually commands is the sound, not the object.
If you’ve been waiting on God for something and wondering whether God even notices, that is exactly where this ancient day is headed. And if you’d like help sensing God’s presence in the middle of an ordinary, unfinished week, there’s a free video guide and companion PDF made for that:
Is the Feast of Trumpets the Same as Rosh Hashanah?
Yes and no. It’s the same date: the first day of the seventh month in the Hebrew calendar, a month now called Tishrei. But the name “Rosh Hashanah,” which means “head of the year,” is not what the Bible calls this day.
In fact, the Bible puts the start of the year somewhere else entirely. When God speaks to Moses and Aaron about Passover in the spring, the instruction is: “This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you” (Exodus 12:2). By that count, the Feast of Trumpets falls in the seventh month, not the first.
The exact Hebrew phrase rosh hashanah does appear in the Bible, once. Ezekiel 40:1 dates one of his visions “in the beginning of the year,” and that is the phrase. But Ezekiel’s vision comes on the tenth day of the month, and he isn’t naming a feast.
The name came later. The Mishnah, the collection of Jewish law written down around AD 200, counts the first of Tishrei as the new year for reckoning years. Today Jewish communities everywhere keep it as Rosh Hashanah, a solemn and joyful new year that opens the ten days leading to Yom Kippur.
In 2026, Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown on Friday, 11 September, and ends at nightfall on Sunday, 13 September. It is a living holy day for Jewish people around the world, not a museum piece, and it deserves to be approached with respect.
One Word for a Battle Alarm and a Shout of Joy
So what is a teruah? This is where it gets interesting, because the Bible uses the word in places that seem to have nothing in common.
It’s an alarm. In Numbers 10, the silver trumpets sound a teruah to move the whole camp: “When ye blow an alarm, then the camps that lie on the east parts shall go forward” (Numbers 10:5). The same blast was the signal for war.
It’s a battle shout. At Jericho, “the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat” (Joshua 6:20).
And it’s pure joy. “Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound” (Psalm 89:15). “The joyful sound” is teruah. So is the shout in “God is gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet” (Psalm 47:5).
Alarm. War cry. Joy. One word. It’s less a particular note than a raised voice: the sound a whole people makes when something big is happening and they can’t keep quiet about it.
The Two Times the Bible Shows This Day Being Kept
Here’s the detail most people read straight past. After the exile in Babylon, when the Jewish people came home to a ruined Jerusalem, the Bible records what happened on the first day of the seventh month. Twice. And both times, it’s tears and joy at once.
The first time, there was no temple. The returned exiles rebuilt the altar and began worship on this exact day: “From the first day of the seventh month began they to offer burnt offerings unto the LORD. But the foundation of the temple of the LORD was not yet laid” (Ezra 3:6).
Read that last line again. They didn’t wait for the building to be finished before they worshipped. They didn’t even wait for the foundation. They started on the Feast of Trumpets with nothing but an altar in a ruined city.
Some months later, when the foundation was finally laid, the people “shouted with a great shout” (Ezra 3:11). That’s teruah again. But the old priests and family heads, who had seen the first temple, wept out loud. The two sounds ran together:
“So that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people: for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off.”
Ezra 3:13
In Hebrew, “the shout of joy” is literally “the teruah of joy.” Nobody listening from far away could tell which sound was which.
The second time, the people cried. Many decades later, “upon the first day of the seventh month,” Ezra the priest read the law of God aloud to everyone old enough to understand it (Nehemiah 8:2). The people wept as they heard it. And their leaders told them: “This day is holy unto the LORD your God; mourn not, nor weep” (Nehemiah 8:9). Then go and eat, drink, “and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared” (Nehemiah 8:10).
So the only two times Scripture shows this day actually being kept, the sound of it is mixed. Joy with weeping. Worship before the building. A holy day for people whose lives were still half rubble.
What Does the Feast of Trumpets Remember?
Back to the question Leviticus leaves open. A “memorial” of what?
The Torah never answers directly. But in Numbers 10, where Israel first receives its silver trumpets, there’s a clue that is easy to miss. When Israel is under attack, “ye shall blow an alarm with the trumpets; and ye shall be remembered before the LORD your God, and ye shall be saved from your enemies” (Numbers 10:9). On feast days, the trumpets are blown “that they may be to you for a memorial before your God” (Numbers 10:10).
Notice which way the remembering runs. It isn’t Israel looking back at something God did. It’s Israel being remembered before God. The blast is how a people says: We’re here. Don’t forget us.
Leviticus doesn’t spell this out for the Feast of Trumpets, so hold it loosely. But it’s the closest the Torah itself comes to explaining what a trumpet “memorial” does. And Jewish tradition landed in the same place. One of the old names for Rosh Hashanah is Yom HaZikaron, the Day of Remembrance. The Bible passages read aloud in synagogues on these two days show exactly what kind of remembering is meant:
- Genesis 21: Sarah, ninety years old and long past hope, finally holds a son. “And the LORD visited Sarah” (Genesis 21:1).
- 1 Samuel 1: Hannah, childless and mocked, pours out her heart at Shiloh (a real place archaeologists are still digging). Then four short words: “and the LORD remembered her” (1 Samuel 1:19).
- Jeremiah 31: God speaks about Ephraim, the wandering northern tribes, the way a parent talks about a child who ran away: “I do earnestly remember him still” (Jeremiah 31:20). It’s the same Jeremiah who, one chapter later, bought a field while the enemy army was at the gate.
Every one of these is about someone who waited. And every one is about God remembering.
The “Last Trump”: How Christians Read the Feast of Trumpets
Many Christians see the Feast of Trumpets pointing forward to the return of Jesus, because the New Testament describes a trumpet at the end. Paul writes: “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:52). And: “the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God” (1 Thessalonians 4:16).
It’s a lovely connection, and that “shout” fits the teruah well. But be honest about what it is: an interpretation. The New Testament never names the Feast of Trumpets, and never says Jesus will return on it. Some teachers use the feast to predict dates. Jesus closed that door himself: “But of that day and hour knoweth no man” (Matthew 24:36). If anyone tells you the day, you can gently set it down.
If questions like this keep coming up for you, you can ask our free Bible Answers AI assistant anything you’re curious about. It opens in ChatGPT.
A Shout for People Who Are Still Waiting
Here’s what all of this adds up to.
We usually think worship is for when things are sorted out. When the prayer is answered. When the building is finished. When we feel ready. The Feast of Trumpets turns that around. It’s a holy day with no explanation, kept by people with no temple, where the shout of joy and the weeping couldn’t be told apart.
Maybe that’s you. Still waiting. Half built. Glad and grieving in the same breath. The Feast of Trumpets says you don’t have to work out which sound you’re making before you make it. You just raise your voice. And the meaning of the sound, as far as Numbers tells us, is this: remember me.
Jesus heard that exact prayer from the cross. A dying man hanging next to him said, “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom” (Luke 23:42). He had no time left. No good record. No temple, no foundation, nothing to offer. Jesus didn’t tell him to wait. “To day shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).
Sarah waited. Hannah waited. The exiles worshipped in a ruin. God remembered every one of them. The shout was never a trick to jog God’s memory. It’s what trust sounds like while it’s still waiting.
Your waiting is not forgotten. You’re allowed to say it out loud.
Actions to Take Today
- Read the one verse (2 minutes). Open Leviticus 23:23-25, then Ezra 3:10-13. Notice how much the first passage leaves unsaid, and how loud the second one is.
- Say your “remember me” out loud (5 minutes). Write down the one thing you’ve gone quiet about waiting for, and put today’s date next to it. Then say it to God in one plain sentence that starts with “Remember me.” Keep the paper somewhere you’ll see it.
- Be someone’s reminder (5 to 10 minutes). Think of one person who is still waiting on something: a diagnosis, a job, a child, a phone call. Send them a short message today that simply says you haven’t forgotten. Nehemiah’s instruction was to “send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared.” A message costs nothing, and it may be the first time in weeks anyone said it.
Journaling Prompts
- What are you waiting for that you’ve stopped saying out loud? When did you go quiet about it, and why?
- Where are you waiting for the “building” to be finished before you’ll let yourself worship, rest, or be glad?
- If your joy and your grief were mixed together this week, what would each one say?
A Prayer
God, I’ve been waiting a long time, and some days I stop asking because I’m tired of hearing myself. Today I’m saying it out loud anyway: remember me. Remember the thing I’m carrying, even the part I haven’t told anyone. I’m not finished, and I’m glad and sad at the same time, but I’d rather bring you that noise than stay quiet. Thank you that Jesus heard a dying man ask to be remembered, and said yes. Amen.
What Do You Think?
Leviticus explains the reason behind feasts like Passover and Tabernacles, but gives the Feast of Trumpets no reason at all. Do you think the silence is part of the point, or was the reason simply so well known that nobody needed to write it down? We’d love to hear what you think. Leave a comment below.
And if you want help noticing that God is near in the middle of the waiting, not just at the end of it, the free video guide and PDF is right here:
Share This
Leviticus never says what the Feast of Trumpets remembers. But Numbers 10:9 says the trumpet blast is how Israel was “remembered before the LORD.” A shout that says: don’t forget us. I needed that today.
The first time the Bible shows the Feast of Trumpets being kept after the exile, there was no temple yet. They started worshipping anyway (Ezra 3:6). You don’t have to be finished to be faithful.
Ezra 3:13 says people “could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping.” It’s the same Hebrew word the Feast of Trumpets is named for. If your joy and grief are tangled up right now, you’re in good company.
Questions People Ask About the Feast of Trumpets
What is the Feast of Trumpets?
The Feast of Trumpets is a biblical holy day on the first day of the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar, commanded in Leviticus 23:24-25 and Numbers 29:1-6. The Bible calls it “a memorial of blowing of trumpets” and “a day of blowing the trumpets,” a day of rest with no ordinary work and special offerings. Its Hebrew name, Yom Teruah, means “day of shouting” or “day of blasting,” and the Bible never states what event the day commemorates.
When is the Feast of Trumpets in 2026?
In 2026, the Feast of Trumpets, kept in Jewish tradition as Rosh Hashanah, begins at sundown on Friday, 11 September 2026 and ends at nightfall on Sunday, 13 September 2026. It falls on the first of Tishrei, the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar, in the Jewish year 5787. Because the Hebrew calendar follows the moon, the date moves on the standard calendar each year, usually landing in September or early October.
Is the Feast of Trumpets the same as Rosh Hashanah?
The Feast of Trumpets and Rosh Hashanah fall on the same day, the first of Tishrei, but the names come from different sources. The Bible calls the day a memorial of teruah (shouting or blasting) in Leviticus 23:24 and never calls it a new year, and Exodus 12:2 places the first month of the year in spring. The name Rosh Hashanah, meaning “head of the year,” reflects later Jewish tradition, recorded in the Mishnah around AD 200, which counts the new year for years from this day.
What does teruah mean in Hebrew?
Teruah (תְּרוּעָה) is a Hebrew word meaning a shout, a loud blast, or an alarm. The Bible uses teruah for the trumpet alarm that moved Israel’s camp and called it to war (Numbers 10:5-9), for the great shout at Jericho (Joshua 6:20), and for joy, as in “the joyful sound” of Psalm 89:15. In Ezra 3:13 the shout of joy, literally “the teruah of joy,” mixed with weeping so that no one could tell the two apart. Leviticus 23:24 names the Feast of Trumpets “a memorial of teruah” without mentioning any instrument.
Is the Feast of Trumpets connected to the last trumpet in the Bible?
Many Christians connect the Feast of Trumpets to “the last trump” in 1 Corinthians 15:52 and “the trump of God” in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, both of which describe the return of Jesus and the resurrection of the dead. This is an interpretation rather than something the Bible states: the New Testament never mentions the Feast of Trumpets by name or links the return of Jesus to it. Jesus said of that day, “of that day and hour knoweth no man” (Matthew 24:36), so the feast cannot be used to set a date.
