Joshua 6 uses two different Hebrew terms for horns or trumpets: horn
(qeren) and trumpets
(shophar). Both are animal horns. The qeren is described as an instrument of sound in Joshua 6:5. The shophar was often used in warfare for signals; the word is used fourteen times in Joshua 6:1–27. The shophar was the most common wind instrument in the Israelite repertoire of musical performance.
Trumpet blasts in Israel were meant to announce the year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25:9). In Hittite texts dating from the time of the Conquest, blowing a trumpet by priests was also meant to signal the arrival of a king at his destination. The blowing of trumpets at the siege of Jericho thus seem to signal the year of the Lord’s favour.1 It was a celebration of his coming judgment of his enemies and redemption of his people. God’s promises are being fulfilled.
4 Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. On the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets.