Numbers2chapter 2

Reuben holds the south and the second rank, and Reuben is the firstborn of Israel. Genesis 49:3-4 had given the reason before Numbers arrived at the consequence, thou shalt not excel, and 1 Chronicles 5:1-2 states how what the firstborn lost was divided, the birthright to the sons of Joseph and the chief ruler out of Judah. The camp is laid out along that ruling, with Judah at the head and Joseph's two sons holding a standard of their own on the west.

Simeon musters 59,300 here, second in size to Judah alone. At the second census in Numbers 26:14 the same tribe stands at 22,200, a fall of 37,100 and the heaviest loss of any tribe in the book. Numbers gives no reason for it in that place, and readers who look for one point to Zimri the son of Salu, a prince of a chief house among the Simeonites, killed at Peor in Numbers 25:14. Simeon is also the one tribe Moses leaves unnamed when he blesses Israel in Deuteronomy 33.

Gad's prince is Eliasaph the son of Reuel here and Eliasaph the son of Deuel at Numbers 1:14. Barnes takes the difference for an error of transcription, since resh and daleth are near neighbours in the Hebrew script, while others read the two forms as a genuine variant of one name, and the text carries both spellings without comment. Gad's 45,650 is the only tribal figure in the census that does not end in a round hundred, and it is the reason the grand total at verse 32 ends in fifty. The south camp comes to 151,450 and moves second.

The tent stands in the middle and the sentence following it is the rule of the whole chapter, as they encamp, so shall they set forward. The formation holds when Israel moves, so the same ring of Levites surrounds the same tent on the road as in the field. Numbers 10:17 and 10:21 show what that looked like in practice, with Gershon and Merari carrying the frame forward early and the Kohathites bringing the holy things later, so that the tabernacle was standing again before they arrived. Wesley reads the midst here broadly for that reason, since the Levites were divided along the marching column.

The west belongs to Ephraim, and Ephraim is the younger of Joseph's two sons. Genesis 48:14 has Jacob crossing his hands to lay the right on the younger head, and the camp is arranged on that blessing, with Ephraim named first and Manasseh placed under him. Psalm 80:2 calls on God before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, which is this standard and its three tribes, the camp that moved directly behind the tabernacle.

Manasseh numbers 32,200, the smallest tribe in the census and the only one under thirty-five thousand. At Numbers 26:34 the same tribe stands at 52,700, a rise of 20,500 and the largest increase in the book. The tribe that comes last in chapter 2 is among the larger tribes when the second generation is counted, which is the sort of reversal the two censuses are set up to show.

Benjamin closes the west camp at 35,400, and Rachel's line holds this standard entire, Joseph's two sons together with her second son. The camp totals 108,100, the smallest of the four, and it moves third. That sets the fewest men immediately behind the tabernacle and its Levites, with the two heaviest camps at the head and at the rear.

Dan takes the north with 62,700 men, second in size to Judah alone. The three tribes of this standard are Dan, Asher and Naphtali, the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, with Gad the one son of a handmaid placed elsewhere. Henry and Wesley both read the last place as the post of danger, given to the second strongest camp so that the tabernacle is covered where it is most exposed.

Asher musters 41,500 and Naphtali 53,400, the same totals given at Numbers 1:41 and 1:43. The chapter gives every tribe the same four things, a side of the camp, a captain, a neighbour to pitch beside and a number, and gives none of them a word of praise or blame. Genesis 49 had weighed the brothers one by one, and Numbers 2 assigns them ground and counts their men.

Numbers 2:31-32

Dan's camp comes to 157,600 and goes hindmost, which Numbers 10:25 calls the rereward of all the camps. The four camps together are 603,550, the figure Numbers 1:46 gives, and the same figure Exodus 38:26 reached by another road, counting the half shekels paid by every man from twenty years old and upward toward the tabernacle. Two counts taken for two different purposes agree down to the last fifty.

Levi stands outside the count of the twelve and is numbered on its own terms at Numbers 3:39, every male from a month old, 22,000, because the tribe was taken in place of the firstborn at 3:12-13. The chapter closes on Israel doing all that was commanded, and Balaam is the man who later saw the result, looking down on Israel abiding in his tents according to their tribes and saying how goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, at Numbers 24:2 and 24:5. Readers have found more in the shape of the camp than the text describes: Barnes carries the square around the tent forward to the square city of Revelation 21:16, Jewish writers whom Gill reports assign a lion, a man, an ox and an eagle to the four standards, and Missler reads those four as the faces of Ezekiel 1 and the outline of the camp as a cross. Numbers 2 names the sides, the captains and the numbers and says nothing of emblems or shape, so those readings stand on their holders rather than on the verse.