And seven priests shall bear before the ark. The Vulgate puts "on the seventh day" in connection with this part of the sentence; Luther also translates thus. The LXX; which Calvin and our translators and the majority of commentators follow, regard this part of the sentence as stating what was to be done on the six days, and rightly so, as Joshua 6:8-14 clearly show.
That the historian, as has been before remarked, did not always give the full instructions Joshua received is evident from this passage. The priests are not said to have been instructed to sound the trumpet on the six days; yet we learn from Joshua 5:13 that they did so.
It is rather implied than expressed that the ark was also to be borne in procession; but that this was (lone is evident from Joshua 5:8. Seven trumpets of rams' horns. There is no mention of rams' horns in the original, which is שׁוֹפְרוֹת trumpets of jubilee, i.
e; of triumph (hardly as Gesenius, "alarm trumpets,'' though not necessarily, with Dr. Vaughan in his 'Heroes of Faith,' "the emblems of festival, not of warfare"). The word הַיּוֹבְלִים is derived from the same root as the Latin is in the phrase Io Triumphe (cf.
Greek ἰώ), and according to Gesenius our word "yule" is also derived from this root. The שׁוֹפַר as the next verse shows, was a curved instrument, in shape like a ram's horn, though not necessarily of that material; whereas the חַצֹצְרָה was a straight trumpet.
Seven times. The importance of the number seven as indicative of completeness is here strongly indicated. Seven priests were to carry seven trumpets for seven days. The word for to swear, נִשְבַּע literally to be sevened, means to have one's vow consecrated and confirmed by seven sacrifices or seven witnesses (see Genesis 21:28, Genesis 21:30).
The number seven, says Bahr in his 'Symbolik des Alten Testament,' 1; 187, 188, is the sign of the relation, union, communion between God and the world, as represented by the number three and four respectively, just as twelve is in another relation (see note on Joshua 21:3).
Its meaning, according to Bahr, among the heathen is somewhat different. There it means the harmony of the universe, and is signified by the seven stars, to which, and neither more nor less, was the power of influencing man's destiny ascribed.
And the priests shall blow with the trumpets. "Fac tibi tribas ductiles, si sacerdos es, immo, quia sacerdos es (gens enim regalis effectus es et sacerdotium sanctum, de te enim scripture est), fac tibi tribas ductiles ex Scripturis sanctis" (Orig; Hom.
7 on Joshua).