Alarm

Alarm in the biblical context refers to a specific staccato sound produced by the silver trumpets to signal particular actions for the congregation of Israel. Numbers 10:5–6 distinguishes between a sustained blast summoning the assembly and the alarm (teruah), which signaled the tribes to break camp and march in prescribed order. The prophets later employed the war-alarm to announce divine judgment: Jeremiah uses it of the approaching Babylonian army (Jer. 4:19; 49:2), and Zephaniah applies it to the day of the Lord as a day of trumpet blast and battle cry (Zeph. 1:16).