English · KJV

Matthew 24:31

“The Coming of the Son of Man”Matthew 24:29–31
King James Version
And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

KJV (with Strong's)
And G2532 he shall send G649 his G846 angels G32 with G3326 a great G3173 sound G5456 of a trumpet G4536, and G2532 they shall gather together G1996 his G846 elect G1588 from G1537 the four G5064 winds G417, from G575 one end G206 of heaven G3772 to G2193 the other G206 G846.

Bible text: King James Version with Strong's numbers · Public domain

Berean Standard Bible
And He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible · Public domain

American Standard Version
And he shall send forth his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

World English Bible Messianic
He will send out his angels with a great sound of a shofar, and they will gather together his chosen ones from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

Bible text: World English Bible, Messianic edition · Public domain

Geneva Bible (1599)
And he shall send his Angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect, from the foure windes, and from the one ende of the heauens vnto the other.

Bible text: Geneva Bible (1599) · Public domain

Young's Literal Translation
and he shall send his messengers with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his chosen from the four winds, from the ends of the heavens unto the ends thereof.

Bible text: Young's Literal Translation · Public domain

King James Version — Interlinear
24 Greek words
  1. καὶkaiAndG2532CONJConjunction
  2. ἀποστελεῖaposteleiHe will sendG649V-FAI-3SVerb Future Active Indicative 3rd Singular
  3. τοὺςtoustheG3588T-APMDefinite article Accusative Plural Masculine
  4. ἀγγέλουςangelousangelsG32N-APMNoun Accusative Plural Masculine
  5. αὐτοῦautouof HimG846P-GSMPersonal pronoun Genitive Singular Masculine
  6. μετὰmetawithG3326PREPPreposition
  7. σάλπιγγοςsalpingosa trumpet callG4536N-GSFNoun Genitive Singular Feminine
  8. φωνῆςphōnēsvoiceG5456N-GSFNoun Genitive Singular Feminine
  9. μεγάληςmegalēsgreatG3173A-GSFAdjective Genitive Singular Feminine
  10. καὶkaiandG2532CONJConjunction
  11. ἐπισυνάξουσινepisunaxousinthey will gather togetherG1996V-FAI-3PVerb Future Active Indicative 3rd Plural
  12. τοὺςtoustheG3588T-APMDefinite article Accusative Plural Masculine
  13. ἐκλεκτοὺςeklektouselectG1588A-APMAdjective Accusative Plural Masculine
  14. αὐτοῦautouof HimG846P-GSMPersonal pronoun Genitive Singular Masculine
  15. ἐκekfromG1537PREPPreposition
  16. τῶνtōntheG3588T-GPMDefinite article Genitive Plural Masculine
  17. τεσσάρωνtessarōnfourG5064A-GPMAdjective Genitive Plural Masculine
  18. ἀνέμωνanemōnwindsG417N-GPMNoun Genitive Plural Masculine
  19. ἀπ᾽ap᾽fromG575PREPPreposition
  20. ἄκρωνakrōn[the] endsG206N-GPNNoun Genitive Plural Neuter
  21. οὐρανῶνouranōnof the heavensG3772N-GPMNoun Genitive Plural Masculine
  22. ἕωςhe'ōsuntilG2193PREPPreposition
  23. ἄκρωνakrōnendsG206N-GPNNoun Genitive Plural Neuter
  24. αὐτῶνautōnof themG846P-GPMPersonal pronoun Genitive Plural Masculine
English is a literal word-by-word gloss of the Greek, not the KJV's wording. Why?

This is the original text the KJV's translators worked from — each Greek word with its own literal English meaning in this verse, prepared by scholars at Tyndale House, Cambridge. The KJV translates whole sentences, not word by word, so its wording differs: one Greek word can become several English words, and the KJV may choose “charity” where the gloss reads “love”. Both are faithful — they answer different questions. For the KJV's own rendering, switch to the KJV text.

Words in [ ] are added by the English.

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This verse

The Son of Man sends his angels with a great sound of a trumpet to gather his chosen people from every corner of the world.

“And he shall send his angels”

The Son of Man commands the angels, because all power in heaven and earth is his (Matthew 28:18).

“with a great sound of a trumpet,”

Sálpinx is a trumpet or trumpet blast, the instrument that called Israel together and sounded at Sinai (Exodus 19:16).

“and they shall gather together his elect”

Episynágō is to gather together into one place, and eklektós is chosen. Every one of God’s chosen is brought in.

“from the four winds,”

North, south, east and west, every direction of the earth.

“from one end of heaven to the other.”

The sky from horizon to horizon, so that none of the elect is left out.

The Coming of the Son of Man

Matthew 24:29–31

Summary

Right after the great tribulation, Jesus says, the sun and moon will go dark, the stars will fall, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of man will appear in heaven, all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see him coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. He will send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet to gather his chosen people from one end of heaven to the other. These three verses tell us that Jesus will come again visibly and in glory, that the whole world will see him, and that he will bring every one of his own to himself.

Where these verses come in Jesus’ teaching

Jesus speaks these words on the Mount of Olives, in the long teaching about the last things that fills Matthew 24 and is often called the Olivet Discourse. His disciples had asked him about the coming destruction of the temple, and then, “what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” (Matthew 24:3). He answered by describing false christs, wars, famines and fierce persecution (Matthew 24:4–28), rising to a “great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time” (Matthew 24:21).

Verse 29 picks up at the end of that tribulation, and these three verses describe the coming itself: the signs in the sky, the Son of Man appearing in glory, and the gathering of his people. Mark and Luke record the same teaching (Mark 13:24–27, Luke 21:25–28). After it Jesus turns to warnings and parables about being ready, which run on through Matthew 25.

The heavens go dark after the tribulation

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days” fixes the order of events. The word for tribulation, thlîpsis, means pressure, and in the New Testament it is the usual word for tribulation, affliction and distress. “The tribulation of those days” is the time of suffering Jesus has just described in Matthew 24:21, marked by persecution, false prophets and widespread deception. The word “immediately”, euthéōs, places the signs in the sky directly after that tribulation ends, with no long gap between them.

Then the lights of the sky fail. The sun is darkened, the moon gives no light, and the stars fall from heaven. The verb for “fall”, píptō, is the ordinary word for falling, used both literally and figuratively. Last of all, “the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.” “Powers” is dýnamis, which means force or might and is often used of miraculous power. “Heavens” is ouranós, a word that means both the sky and heaven, and to Jesus’ hearers the heavens held the sun, moon and stars as well as the angelic hosts. So “the powers of the heavens” (dynameis tōn ouranōn) can mean the heavenly bodies with all their forces, or the angelic and spiritual powers of the heavenly realm, and the shaking may reach both. The word for “shaken”, saleúō, means to rock, to make something waver or topple, and figuratively to disturb. Each “and” in the verse adds a further sign, until the very powers of the heavens are moved. The God who made the heavens holds them in his hand, and he will shake them when his Son comes.

Jesus’ hearers knew this language from the prophets, who spoke of darkened skies when they foretold God’s judgment and the day of the LORD. Isaiah wrote, “For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine” (Isaiah 13:10). Joel wrote, “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come” (Joel 2:31). In the prophets this language goes with the fall of earthly powers when God steps into history. John saw the same things at the opening of the sixth seal in Revelation 6, when “the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood,” and the stars of heaven fell to the earth as the great day of wrath came (Revelation 6:12–14). Mark and Luke give the same signs in the sky (Mark 13:24–25, Luke 21:25–26).

Are the signs in the sky literal?

Believers differ on how literally to take these signs. Some expect the sun, moon and stars themselves to be darkened and moved in an event the whole world will see. Others read them as the prophets’ picture language, in which the sun and moon stand for the established powers and the stability of the world, and the stars for rulers or the hosts of heaven, so that their fall shows the old order collapsing before God’s kingdom. Many hold the two together: the words are symbolic, and they point to real events that everyone will see and understand. On every reading the verse teaches that the end of this age is God’s own work, that it shakes heaven and earth, and that it leads straight to the coming of Christ.

The Son of Man comes on the clouds of heaven

“And then” translates tóte, the ordinary word for “then, at that time”, and it carries the account on from the darkened sky to the sign of the Son of man. The word for sign, sēmeîon, means a sign, mark or token, something that points beyond itself, and Strong’s describes it as “an indication, especially ceremonially or supernaturally”. This one appears “in heaven”, where the whole world can see it.

“Son of man” was Jesus’ favourite name for himself. It speaks of his true humanity, and it also carries his authority, because it comes from Daniel’s vision: “I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed” (Daniel 7:13–14). Jesus is the one Daniel saw. When he comes on the clouds, he comes to the kingdom that was given to him.

“They shall see the Son of man coming” uses plain words. The verb for “see”, optánomai, means to gaze at or to be seen, and “coming” is érchomai, the everyday word for coming or going. His return will be as real and as visible as any arrival. The angels told the disciples at the ascension that “this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). The clouds go with God’s presence and majesty all through Scripture, and often with his judgment.

He comes “with power and great glory.” Power is dýnamis again, the same word used for the powers of the heavens in verse 29, and here it is the might of the Lord who has the right to judge and to set up his kingdom. “Great” is polýs, and glory is dóxa, honour and majesty that is plain for all to see. At his first coming he came humbly, and at his second he comes as King and Judge. Then it will be said, “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 11:15). Paul calls this coming “that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

What is the sign of the Son of man?

Jesus names the sign and leaves its form undescribed, and what he makes clear is that it appears in heaven and announces his coming. Many take the sign to be Christ himself in his glory, so that the sign and the one it points to are seen together. Others take it to be a brilliant light or some display of God’s presence that goes before or with his coming. On either reading everyone who sees it will know what it means, and the mourning of the nations follows at once.

Why will all the tribes of the earth mourn?

“All the tribes of the earth” means every people on earth. The word for “mourn”, kóptō, first meant to chop, and then to beat the breast in grief, to lament and wail. It is the strongest kind of sorrow. The main reason for it is that people who rejected Christ, or were unready for him, now see who he is and know that they must face him as Judge. Zechariah foretold such mourning: “they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son” (Zechariah 12:10). John takes up the same words: “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him” (Revelation 1:7). Some also hear in the mourning a grief over all that people have suffered, or the awe of a world that sees the majesty of God.

The King who comes will separate the nations as a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats (Matthew 25:31–33). For those who belong to him the same day is a day of joy, for “so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:17).

The angels gather the elect

“He shall send his angels.” The Son of Man gives the command and the angels carry it out. All authority is his, as he told his disciples after the resurrection: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28:18). The angels are his messengers, “ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation” (Hebrews 1:14), and here their service to the heirs of salvation reaches its end.

They go “with a great sound of a trumpet.” The word sálpinx means a trumpet, used in war and in worship, and also the blast of a trumpet. In Israel the trumpet, the shofar, called the people together, sounded the alarm for war, marked the new moons and announced God’s great acts. At Sinai “the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud” made all the people in the camp tremble (Exodus 19:16), and in the year of jubile the trumpet sounded through the land to “proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof” (Leviticus 25:9–10). Paul ties the trumpet to the resurrection and the gathering of believers when Christ comes: “the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:52), and “the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God” (1 Thessalonians 4:16–17). This trumpet is loud enough to be heard by all, and it calls God’s people home.

The angels “gather together his elect.” The verb episynágō means to gather together into one place, and here it brings together people scattered across the whole world. They come “from the four winds,” the common biblical way of naming the four directions, north, south, east and west. Jeremiah speaks of “the four winds from the four quarters of heaven” (Jeremiah 49:36). “From one end of heaven to the other” says the same thing again, with heaven here meaning the sky that stretches to the horizon. Wherever his people are, the angels will find them. Mark records the same promise (Mark 13:27).

Who are the elect?

The elect are the people God has chosen for himself. The word eklektós comes from a verb meaning to choose out, and it means select or chosen, and so also favoured. In the Old Testament God called Israel “my people, my chosen” (Isaiah 43:20). In the New Testament the elect are all who belong to Christ, Jews and Gentiles alike. Paul asks, “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth” (Romans 8:33), and he says that God “hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love” (Ephesians 1:4). The great gathering at the end is the completion of a choice God made before time began.

Christ brings all his own to himself

The one who gathers the elect is the one who died for them. They are made right with God through his sacrifice, for God “hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). In this gathering he keeps his own promises. He said of his sheep, “there shall be one fold, and one shepherd” (John 10:16), and to his disciples, “I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:3). What follows is the joy John heard announced in heaven: “the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready” (Revelation 19:7). The Saviour who began the work of salvation finishes it, and every one of his own is brought safely into his presence.

Living in the light of his coming

These verses describe the darkest moment in the history of the world, and they turn it toward Christ. When the lights of the sky fail, the Son of Man appears in glory, and that is why the people of God can read these words with hope. The God who rules the sun and the stars rules the days of tribulation too, and he has set their end.

The mourning of the nations is a solemn warning. Everyone will see Christ, and everyone will meet him as he truly is. The same Jesus who will come as Judge now calls all people to turn to him in repentance and faith, so that his coming will be a day of joyful welcome.

For those who belong to him, the trumpet and the gathering are a promise. Wherever you are in the world, and however scattered and pressed God’s people may be, his angels will find every one of his own. So we watch and wait for him, live faithfully in the meantime, and tell others of the King who is coming.

Last revised

Historical interpretation

Ten Centuries of Reception

10 surviving comments on this verse. Each one is dated, so this reads as a timeline rather than a list.

10 quotes · AD 100–1107
Ante-NicenePost-NiceneEarly MedievalMedieval
10020030040050060070080090010001100

Select a marker to jump to its quote. Markers stagger vertically where authors wrote within a few decades of each other.

AD 100DidacheAnte-NiceneSourceThe Didache, Chapter 16
Watch for your life's sake. Let not your lamps be quenched, nor your loins unloosed; but be ye ready, for ye know not the hour in which our Lord cometh. But often shall ye come together, seeking the things which are befitting to your souls: for the whole time of your faith will not profit you, if ye be not made perfect in the last time. For in the last days false prophets and corrupters shall be multiplied, and the sheep shall be turned into wolves, and love shall be turned into hate; for when lawlessness increaseth, they shall hate and persecute and betray one another, and then shall appear the world-deceiver as Son of God, and shall do signs and wonders, and the earth shall be delivered into his hands, and he shall do iniquitous things which have never yet come to pass since the beginning. Then shall the creation of men come into the fire of trial, and many shall be made to stumble and shall perish; but they that endure in their faith shall be saved from under the curse itself. And then shall appear the signs of the truth; first, the sign of an out-spreading in heaven; then the sign of the sound of the trumpet; and the third, the resurrection of the dead; yet not of all, but as it is said: The Lord shall come and all His saints with Him. Then shall the world see the Lord coming upon the clouds of heaven.
d. AD 253Origen of Alexandriaas quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274Ante-NiceneSourceCatena Aurea by Aquinas
Or He comes every day with great power to the mind of the believer in the clouds of prophecy, that is, in the Scriptures of the Prophets and the Apostles, who utter the word of God with a meaning above human nature. Also we say that to those who understand He comes with great glory, and that this is the more seen in the second coming of the Word which is to the perfect. 1And so it may be, that all which the three Evangelists have said concerning Christ's coming, if carefully compared together and thoroughly examined, would be found to apply to His continual daily coming in His body, which is the Church, of which coming He said in another place, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of the power of God, and coming in the clouds of heaven, (Mat. 26:6.) excepting those places in which He promises that His last coming in His own person.

Because He had spoken of mourning, which shall be only that they may bear witness against themselves and condemn themselves, that none should suppose that that mourning will end their woes, He now adds, And he shall send his Angels with a trump and a loud voice.

It is written in Numbers (Numb. 10:3.), that the Priests shall summon by the sound of the trumpet from the four winds those who are of the camp of Israel, and it is in allusion to this that Christ speaks here of the Angels, And they shall gather together the elect from the four winds.

Some of little discernment think, that only those who shall then be found in the body shall be gathered together, but it is better to say that the Angels of Christ shall then gather together not only all who from the coming of Christ to the end of the world have been called and chosen, but all from the foundation of the world, who like Abraham have seen the day of Christ and rejoiced therein. (John 8:56.) And that He here means not only those that shall be found in the body, but those also who have quitted the body, the following words show, from one end of heaven to the other, which cannot be meant of any one upon earth. Or, the heavens are the divine Scriptures and their authors in which God dwells. One end of heaven is the beginning of the Scriptures, the other end is their conclusion. The saints there are gathered together from one end of heaven, that is, from those that live in the beginning of the Scriptures to those who live in the ends of them. They shall be gathered together with a trump and a loud voice, that they who hear and attend may prepare themselves for that way of perfection which leads to the Son of God.
d. AD 253Origen of AlexandriaAnte-NiceneSourceCOMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 51
You will understand why the saints are gathered “from the heights of the earth” if you consider the conduct of their lives and the perfection, insofar as possible, of their dealings with others. All who lived uprightly will be gathered not simply from the earth but “from the heights of the earth.” After their earthly lives have ended, their conduct in the next life will raise them not simply from the highest point in heaven, as it was from the highest level of earth, but from the “heights of the heavens” because each and every heaven has both a beginning and a conclusion or perfection. After their exemplary lives on earth, the saints’ conduct in the first heaven, once they have attained its perfection or conclusion, will elevate them still further. The same is true for the second heaven and the third heaven. It seems to me therefore that there are many heavens, each with its own initiation and perfection. It is from the beginnings and ends of these diverse heavens that God gathers his elect.“From the heights of the heavens to their ends.” It is also possible that the heavens here represent either the divine Scriptures or their authors, in both of which God dwells. In that case, the heights of the Scripture is its beginning, and the perfection of Scripture is its conclusion. To say that the saints will be gathered from “the heights of the heavens” means that they will be found from among those who live in the beginning of Scripture to those who live at its conclusion, or, if I may speak more profoundly, from the unskilled to the experts.
The angels who will be sent by the Savior to gather his elect will gather them not just with any ordinary voice but with what Scripture calls a “great trumpet.” It won’t be an uncertain voice but one that is definite and clear so that all who hear and learn will be established on the way of perfection which leads to the Son of God.
AD 380Apostolic ConstitutionsPost-NiceneSourceApostolic Constitutions (Book VII), Section 2, XXXII
For in the last days false prophets shall be multiplied, and such as corrupt the word; and the sheep shall be changed into wolves, and love into hatred: for through the abounding of iniquity the love of many shall wax cold. For men shall hate, and persecute, and betray one another. And then shall appear the deceiver of the world, the enemy of the truth, the prince of lies, [2 Thessalonians 2:3-12] whom the Lord Jesus "shall destroy with the spirit of His mouth, who takes away the wicked with His lips; and many shall be offended at Him. But they that endure to the end, the same shall be saved. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven;" [Isaiah 11:4; Matthew 24:1-51] and afterwards shall be the voice of a trumpet by the archangel; and in that interval shall be the revival of those that were asleep. And then shall the Lord come, and all His saints with Him, with a great concussion above the clouds, with the angels of His power, [Matthew 16:27] in the throne of His kingdom, to condemn the devil, the deceiver of the world, and to render to every one according to his deeds. "Then shall the wicked go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous shall go into life eternal," [Matthew 25:46] to inherit those things "which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man, such things as God has prepared for them that love Him;" [1 Corinthians 2:9] and they shall rejoice in the kingdom of God, which is in Christ Jesus.
d. AD 382Apollinaris of LaodiceaPost-NiceneSourceFRAGMENT 127
By saying that the Son of man will send his angels, he demonstrates that the Son of man is God. For they are God’s angels, and to send them is solely God’s prerogative. The saying “from one end of the heavens to the other” teaches us that the extremes of earth and heaven are the same. Hence it is necessary to believe in Christ and not to be deceived as though the smallest part of earth, situated in the midst of the heavens, was surpassed by their infinite greatness.
d. AD 407John Chrysostomas quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274Post-NiceneSourceCatena Aurea by Aquinas
The sound of the trump refers to the resurrection, and the rejoicing, and to represent the astonishment which shall be then, and the woe of those that shall be left, and shall not be snatched up into the clouds.

That the Lord calls His elect by His Angels pertains to the honour of the elect; and Paul also says that they shall be caught into the clouds; (1 Thes. 4:17.) that is, the Angels shall gather together those that have risen, and when they are gathered together, the clouds shall receive them.
d. AD 407John ChrysostomPost-NiceneSourceHomily on the Gospel of Matthew 76
And then again, "He will send His angels with a great trumpet, and they shall gather the elect from the four winds, from one end of Heaven to the other."

But when thou hast heard of this, consider the punishment of them that remain. For neither shall they suffer that former penalty only, but this too. And as above He said, that they should say, "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord," so here, that they shall mourn. For since He had spoken unto them of grievous wars, that they might learn, that together with the fearful things here, the torments there also await them, He brings them in mourning and separated from the elect, and consigned to hell; by this again rousing the disciples, and indicating from how many evils they should be delivered, and how many good things they shall enjoy.

And why now doth He call them by angels, if He comes thus openly? To honor them in this way also. But Paul saith, that they "shall be caught up in clouds." And He said this also, when He was speaking concerning a resurrection. "For the Lord Himself," it is said, "shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel." So that when risen again, the angels shall gather them together, when gathered together the clouds shall catch them up; and all these things are done in a moment, in an instant. For it is not that He abiding above calleth them, but He Himself cometh with the sound of a trumpet. And what mean the trumpets and the sound? They are for arousing, for gladness, to set forth the amazing nature of the things then doing, for grief to them that are left.
d. AD 420JeromePost-NiceneSourceCommentary on Matthew
(Ver. 31.) And He will send His angels with a trumpet and a loud voice; and they will gather His chosen ones from the four winds, from the highest heavens to their ends. The Apostle speaks of this trumpet in I Corinthians XV; I Thessalonians IV: and we read in the Apocalypse of John (Apocalypse VIII): and in the Old Testament (Numbers X), we are instructed to make trumpets of gold, silver, and bronze, so that the lofty mysteries of doctrine may resound.
d. AD 533Remigius of Rheimsas quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274Post-NiceneSourceCatena Aurea by Aquinas
Here we are not to think of a real trumpet, but of the voice of the archangel, which shall be so loud that at its sound all the dead shall rise out of the dust of the earth.

That is, from the four quarters of the world, north, south, east, and west.

Or otherwise; Lest any one should suppose that they should be gathered only from the four quarters of the world, and not from the middle regions, The adds this, And from one end of heaven to the other. By the heights of heaven meaning the central regions of the earth, which are under the heights of heaven; and by the ends of heaven, meaning the extreme parts of the earth, where the land seems to join a very wide and distant horizon.
d. AD 1107Theophylact of OhridMedieval
He will send the angels to gather together the saints and those risen from the dead, so that they can meet Him in the clouds. He also honors them by calling them with angels. And if Paul says that they will be caught up in the clouds (1Thess. 4:17), this is not contradictory. For when they have been gathered together by the angels, the clouds will snatch them up. There will be the trumpet, to cause the greater consternation.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.

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