What Does Psalm 81:3 Mean in the King James?
Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The moon’s renewal becomes audible as a shared summons to the feast.
THE MEANING
This verse places you inside a recurring rhythm: the month begins anew, and a trumpet marks the feast as shared time. Sacred time is counted, sounded, and gathered.
THE ROOT
חֹדֶשׁ
chodesh
GROWS FROM
ח־ד־שׁ
ḥ-d-sh
To be new; to renew.
“new moon” in this verse is chodesh. The same root holds “new” and “month”: the month is named through renewal. The trumpet marks that return as something the whole community can hear.
ALSO GROWS
chadash: New
חָדָשׁ
It makes the new moon’s renewal visible within the word itself.
chiddesh: Renew, make new
חִדֵּשׁ
It shows that the month’s beginning belongs to a recurring pattern of renewal.
חַג
chag
GROWS FROM
ח־ג־ג
ḥ-g-g
To celebrate or keep a festival.
“Feast” here is tied to an observance that returns, not just a meal or a date. The trumpet gives that recurring celebration a public signal.
ALSO GROWS
chag: Feast, festival
חַג
This is the word used for the shared occasion named in the verse.
chagag: Celebrate or keep a festival
חָגַג
It connects the feast to the act of observing it together.
THE PATTERN
A recurring sacred time becomes a shared occasion through a recognizable signal.
Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; that they may be to you for a memorial before your God: I am the LORD your God.Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:THE THREAD
Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; that they may be to you for a memorial before your God: I am the LORD your God.Numbers uses חֹדֶשׁ (chodesh, month or new moon), the same word-root behind “new moon” here, and pairs it with trumpet blasts at monthly and feast occasions. The sound makes the recurring time audible and shared.
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