Horns are a sign of strength, power, and victory in battle and are fundamentally used as weapons, particularly when animals are fighting off predators, defending off predators, defending their babies or competing against other animals for land or the right to mate with females.
Horns in some cultures represent plenty; you will see Horns with fruit and nuts inside, Horns represent victorious and fertile abundance and the royal oil of God’s Spirit. Most Jews have a difficult time finding Jesus in the O.T. He was right here in Hannah’s prayer. Not Hannah’s prayer alone, but Abraham, on the verge of killing Isaac, looks around and sees a ram “caught in a thicket by his horns.
The horns of the altar could have been used as boundary markers, setting apart the sacred space that was the actual place of intersection of the divine and human spheres.
This sacred altar and its horns, where the atoning blood was splashed, provided a place of sanctuary.
