Voice from the Horns of the Altar

The altar of incense bore horns on its four corners, overlaid with gold, and once a year atonement was made upon them with blood (Exod 30:2-3, 10). Adonijah and Joab both fled to the horns of the altar (1 Kgs 1:50-51; 2:28-34), but Joab learned that it shelters only those who come honestly, as the Torah had ruled for the murderer (Exod 21:14). In Revelation 9:13 a voice from the four horns of the golden altar releases the sixth trumpet: four horns for authority over the whole earth, a unanimous ruling from the place of mercy itself. At the third bowl the altar speaks again as the second witness: "true and righteous are thy judgments" (Rev 16:7).