In the seventh month— This was the first month of the civil year, answering to our September, and was the seventh month of the ecclesiastical year. A memorial of blowing of trumpets, some render a festival for commemorating, or praising God, with the sound of the trumpet; see Psalms 150:3. This feast was kept with great solemnity; the trumpets sounded from sun-rising to sun-setting. The priest, who sounded the trumpet, began with the usual prayer, "Blessed be the Lord, who hath sanctified us by his precepts, &c." subjoining this thanksgiving "Blessed be God, who hath preserved us in life, and brought us to this time." When all was ended, the people repeated aloud, "Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound."
The Scripture does not acquaint us with the occasion of appointing this feast. Theodoret believes it to have been in memory of the thunder and lightning, and the sound of the trumpet, from mount Sinai, when God gave his law from thence. Maimonides considers the festival as designed, not only to proclaim the new year, but as a solemn warning to repent and prepare for the coming of the great day of atonement, which was at hand: and many have justly supposed that this festival was typical of the blowing of the Gospel trumpet; see Isaiah 58:1.Hosea 8:1.Zechariah 9:14. The Gentiles seem to have borrowed from hence their blowing with trumpets among the rites and ceremonies in the worship of Cybele.