Make thee two trumpets of silver; of a whole piece shalt thou make them: that thou mayest use them for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps.
Make thee two trumpets of silver; of a whole piece, х miqshaah (H4749)] - turned, brought into a round form [Septuagint, elatas poieeseis autas]. These trumpets were of a long form, in opposition to that of the Egyptian trumpets, with which the people were convened to the worship of Osiris, and which were curved like rams' horns. Those which Moses made, as described by Josephus, and represented on the arch of Titus, were straight, a cubit or more in length, the tubes of the thickness of a flute, and both extremities bore a close resemblance to those in use among us. It appears from the representations on the monuments that straight trumpets were used in Egypt in the times of the earliest Pharaohs, whence they were doubtless borrowed by the Hebrews; and it is worthy of notice that this form of trumpet was, both by that people and the Egyptians, exclusively employed in war. (See the notes at Leviticus 25:1-55: cf. Joshua 6:4, where the crooked trumpet is described as used in sacred ceremonies; Wilkinson's 'Ancient Egypt.,' vol. 1:, p. 297; also vol. 2:, p. 260-262). They were of solid silver-so as, from the purity of the metal, to give a shrill, distinct sound; and there were two of them, probably because there were only two sons of Aaron. And although the camp comprehended 2,500,000 people, two trumpets would be quite sufficient; because sound is conveyed easily through the pure atmosphere, and reverberated strongly among the valleys of the Sinaitic hills.
For the journeying of the camps, х uwlmaca` (H4550) 'et (H854) hamachªnowt (H4264)] - for the breaking up, the departure of the camps; i:e., the camps of the different tribes (cf. Numbers 10:14-28).