Numberschapter 2
34 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Every man of the children of Israel shall pitch by his own standard, with the ensign of their father’s house: far off about the tabernacle of the congregation shall they pitch.
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Numbers Overview.
Numbers 2 follows the count with a map. It comes from the weeks at Sinai, when Moses and Aaron had to give a vast people a place to sleep and a place to walk. Its first hearers had seen Egyptian armies camp around the tent of their king. Listen for the four sides of the camp and the order in which they are named, and for the single verse that stands at the centre of the list. The chapter teaches by arrangement. Read it with a sketch of the square beside you, and ask what every tent was facing.
Context
- Who
- Families being told where their tent goes and where they walk in the column
- What
- The plan of the camp, with three tribes on each side of the tabernacle and the Levites around it, and the order in which the tribes march.
- Where
- The camp in the Wilderness of Sinai, laid out as a square around the Tent of Meeting.
- When
- The second month of the second year after the Exodus, about 1444 BC, a few weeks before the camp first moved.
- Why
- To set God's dwelling at the centre of Israel's life, so that where a family camped and walked showed what the nation was gathered around.
Historical context
The order is spoken to Moses and Aaron together, and it is given after the counting of chapter 1 rather than before it. Every tribal figure here repeats a figure chapter 1 had already reported, so the two chapters are one piece of work in two stages.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
The time is the second month of the second year after the Exodus, about 1444 BC on the traditional dating. Numbers 10:11 puts the departure from Sinai on the twentieth day of that month, so the camp stood in this form for a matter of weeks before it first moved in it.
The place is the Wilderness of Sinai, and the plan is the camp itself. Three tribes hold each side of a hollow square, the Levites ring the tabernacle inside them, and Moses, Aaron and the priests hold the east face at the entrance. The occasion is the march, since a body this size moving with a portable sanctuary needed a fixed sequence, and the chapter makes a tribe's place in the square its place in the column.
A first hearer knew the shape from Egypt, where reliefs of the field camp of Ramesses II at Kadesh show a rectangular camp arranged around a central enclosure holding the pharaoh's tent. Israel's camp follows the same military logic, with the difference that the King in the middle of it is God. The standard marked one of the four great divisions and the ensign marked a father's house inside it, so a family that could see its own emblem could find its place in a crowd.
Significance
Every Israelite could look toward the centre of the camp from any side and see the same thing. Where a family pitched its tent said who it belonged to and what it was arranged around.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
For people who had come out of a land where the king's tent sat in the middle of the army, the arrangement carried one plain message. Israel had a King in the field with them, and the whole nation was camped facing Him.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
The camp of this chapter is read as a picture with colours in it. Rashi holds that each banner carried "a piece of coloured cloth hanging on it". The colour of each tribe matched its own stone in the high priest's breastplate, so that every man could recognise his own standard. He keeps a second explanation beside the first. The signs are the ones Jacob gave his sons when they carried his body out of Egypt. Judah, Issachar and Zebulun stood at the east side of the bier, and Reuben, Simeon and Gad at the south. Rashi names Midrash Tanchuma, Bamidbar 12 for it (Rashi on Numbers 2:2:1). Rashi is quoted in this row from the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, which the corpus marks public domain.
The distance between the people and the Tent is measured, and the measure has a purpose. Rashi reads the words at some distance as two thousand cubits, taking the figure from Joshua 3:4, and says why that number and no other. It is a Sabbath day's walk, so that Israel could come near the Tabernacle for instruction on the Sabbath. Moses, Aaron and his sons and the Levites were encamped close to it (Rashi on Numbers 2:2:2, citing Bemidbar Rabbah 2:9). The compass points are read from the body rather than from a map. The east is the front, and the west is called the back side of the world (Rashi on Numbers 2:3:1).
Ramban reads the totals in this chapter as a record rather than a recount. The numbers are God's own words to Moses, carried over from the census of the first chapter, "since they did not count them now a second time". He then draws an inference from the dates. Between the census on the first of Iyar and the day the camps set forward, not one man of that great multitude was missing, and he holds the preservation to be a miracle. The prince of Gad is called Deuel in the first chapter and Reuel here. Ramban explains that the Sacred Language changes names of the same meaning, and that the man was called by both (Ramban on Numbers 2:4:1, Commentary on the Torah by Ramban, translated by Charles B. Chavel, Shilo, New York, 1971 to 1976).
The order of the march is the order of the camp, and Rashi holds the two together. When the cloud lifted "the priests blew the trumpets and the camp of Judah moved off first". Each division kept the side assigned to it, with the Levites and the wagons in the centre (Rashi on Numbers 2:9:1). He repeats the rule at the seventeenth verse: their positions on the road "shall be the same as when encamping" (Rashi on Numbers 2:17:2). The Tent of Meeting set out after the divisions of Judah and Reuben, which Rashi reads from where the statement stands in the narrative (Rashi on Numbers 2:17:1). Sforno notes only that the Levites were left out of the total of the remaining tribes (Sforno on Numbers 2:33:1, Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash). Ibn Ezra comments across the chapter at 2:1:1, 2:2:1, 2:3:1, 2:4:1, 2:5:1, 2:9:1, 2:10:1, 2:15:1, 2:16:1, 2:32:1, 2:33:1 and 2:34:1, and Malbim at 2:3:1, 2:32:1 and 2:34:1. The corpus carries no English text for either under its licence, so both stand here cited and unquoted.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited here and never quoted. The Talmudic ones are six. Bava Batra 91a:13 is anchored on the third verse and Sanhedrin 108a:4 on the sixth. Four stand in the Jerusalem Talmud, at Eruvin 5:1:17 and Yoma 4:6:5 on the seventeenth verse, and at Berakhot 8:2:8 and Pesachim 7:1:6 on the twentieth.
The midrashic locators run to thirty-four. Bamidbar Rabbah carries fifteen of them, at 2:1, 2:2, 2:3, 2:4, 2:5, 2:10, 2:11, 2:12, 2:20, 4:1, 13:15, 13:18, 14:1, 14:4 and 18:5. Midrash Tanchuma Buber carries seven, at Bamidbar 22:3, Matot 2:1, Nasso 17:1, Ki Tisa 6:1, Terumah 3:2, Vaera 7:1 and Beha'alotcha 15:1, with the unBuber Tanchuma at Bamidbar 19:1, Nasso 9:1 and Ki Tisa 9:2. Midrash Aggadah stands twice on the third verse, at Numbers 2:3:1 and 2:3:2, and Midrash Lekach Tov twice, at Exodus 18:27:2 and Numbers 2:34:1. Five more stand alone: Bereshit Rabbah 97:5, Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayechi 21, Kohelet Rabbah 1:11:1, and two entries in Otzar Midrashim, the Baraita of Melechet HaMishkan 1:23 and Sefer Tagin 5:251. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Numbers 2:2:1 to 2:20:1, the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain; Ramban, Ramban on Numbers 2:4:1, Commentary on the Torah by Ramban, translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel, Shilo, New York, 1971 to 1976; Sforno, Sforno on Numbers 2:33:1, Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Numbers 2:1:1 to 2:34:1, cited by ref because the licence Sefaria reports does not permit the text here; Malbim, Malbim on Numbers 2:3:1, 2:32:1 and 2:34:1, cited by ref because Sefaria holds no English version; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/numbers/2.json, the 6 Talmud and 34 Midrash locators of this chapter.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Judah's standard on the east
Numbers 2:1-2
The order of the camp comes to Moses and Aaron together after the count of chapter 1, setting each man “under his standard, with the banners of his family”. Israel camps “around the Tent of Meeting at a distance from it”, which Wesley reckons at the two thousand cubits of Joshua 3:4. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown say no authentic record survives of the forms, colours or devices of the standards.
Numbers 2:1
“And the Lord spake unto Moses, and unto Aaron,.... Very probably after the number of the children of Israel was taken, of which in the preceding chapter, and when the congregation of Israel with the tabernacle were about to set forward on their journey; and therefore directions are here given for their orderly and regular proceeding in it, in what form and manner they should both encamp and march: saying: as follows.”
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown hold that every family needed a banner of its own in a camp this large. Jewish writers whom they and Matthew Henry report gave each tribe the colour of its stone in the high priest's breastplate. Exodus 28:21 engraves those stones with the twelve names.
Numbers 2:2
“It is supposed they Were at 2000 cubits distance from it, which was the space between the people and the ark; and it is not improbable, because the Levites encamped round about it, between them and the tabernacle.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 2:2
“The latter must have been absolutely necessary, as one ensign only for a tribe would not have been visible at the extremities of so large a body. We possess no authentic information as to their forms, material, colors, and devices. But it is probable that they might bear some resemblance to those of Egypt, only stripped of any idolatrous symbols.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Numbers 2:3-4
Judah, Jacob's fourth son, camps on the east, “toward the sunrise”, a precedence that rests on Genesis 49:10, “The scepter will not depart from Judah”. Its leader, Nahshon son of Amminadab, stands in David's line at Ruth 4:20, and Numbers 7:12 gives him the first day of the dedication. At 74,600 Judah is the largest tribe in the census, so the front of the camp is also its heaviest part.
Numbers 2:3
“And on the east side, towards the rising of the sun,.... Which rises in the east; or of all; for, as Jarchi observes, that which is "before" is called "Kedem", the east, as the west is called "behind": shall they of the standard of the camp of Judah pitch, throughout their armies; the tribes of Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun, formed one camp, which had its name from the principal tribe Judah; and this was divided into various regiments and companies, called armies, who severally pitched under one and the same standard.”
2 more voices on this verse
Numbers 2:3
“The following plan shows the general arrangement of the camp, which would vary in different places according to local exigencies. The area of the camp might be about three square miles: Num 2:14 Reuel - Doubtless an error of transcription for Deuel Num 1:14.”
Numbers 2:3
“Judah - This tribe was in the first post, and in their marches led the van, not only because it was the most numerous, but chiefly because Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, was to descend from it: Yea, from the loins of Nahshon, who is here appointed the chief captain of it.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The men who counted the tribes in chapter 1 now command them. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that the twelve census leaders were made captains, owing the post to their hereditary headship. Nahshon's 74,600 is the figure of 1:27 unchanged.
Numbers 2:5-8
Issachar and Zebulun fill out the east camp, so the three tribes under Judah's standard are sons of Leah, born fourth, ninth and tenth. John Gill gives that shared house as the reason the two take their places under Judah without complaint. Their figures, 54,400 and 57,400, repeat Numbers 1:29 and 1:31 exactly, since chapter 2 places the men chapter 1 had already numbered and takes no fresh count.
Numbers 2:5
“And those that do pitch next unto him shall be the tribe of Issachar,.... Who with Zebulun, after mentioned, as placed with him under the same standard, were the brethren of Judah, by the same mother Leah, and so fitly put together, as most likely to continue in harmony and love; and being the youngest sons of Leah, and brethren of Judah, would, without any reluctance or murmuring, pitch under their elder brother's standard: and Nethaneel, the son of Zuar, shall be captain of the children of Issachar; see Num 1:8.”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 2:5
“Issachar was the ninth son of Jacob and the fifth son of Leah. The tribe of Issachar was positioned strategically with Judah and Zebulun.”
Issachar's 54,400 camp beside Judah on the east. John Calvin reads the whole arrangement as God's way of preventing quarrels over precedence, since ambition would have set the tribes contending for the place of honour. Judah's companions were tribes that would accept his rule.
Zebulun takes the other side of Judah, with Issachar on the first. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that all three tribes were large, so the east camp formed a strong and imposing front. Eliab son of Helon commands, as at 1:9.
Numbers 2:7
“Then the tribe of Zebulun--on the other side. While Judah's tribe was the most numerous, those of Issachar and Zebulun were also very numerous; so that the association of those three tribes formed a strong and imposing van.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Zebulun's 57,400 completes the east camp. Jacob named Zebulun and Issachar in turn at Genesis 49:13-14, and Moses blessed them together at Deuteronomy 33:18, Zebulun going out and Issachar staying in his tents. John Gill confirms the figure against 1:31.
The camp of Judah totals 186,400, and the verse closes with “they shall set out first”, which makes the plan of the camp the order of the march. Numbers 10:14 records it falling out that way when the cloud lifts, “First, the divisions of the camp of Judah set out under their standard”. The tribe of the sceptre leads, and the other three camps take their turn behind it.
Numbers 2:9
“All that were numbered in the camp of Judah were an hundred thousand and fourscore thousand and six thousand and four hundred, throughout their armies,.... 186,400 men.”
Reuben to the south, the tent in the middle
Numbers 2:10-11
Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, holds the south and the second rank. Genesis 49:4 had given the reason, “you will no longer excel”, and 1 Chronicles 5:1-2 states how the loss was divided, the birthright to the sons of Joseph while “a ruler came from” Judah. The camp follows that ruling, with Judah at the head and Joseph's two sons holding their own standard on the west.
Numbers 2:10
“On the south side shall be the standard of the camp of Reuben, according to their armies,.... This camp consisted of the tribes of Reuben, Simeon, and Gad, which was divided into lesser bodies, regiments, or companies, called armies; and this was placed to the south of the tabernacle, or to the right hand, as Aben Ezra interprets it; this was the right wing of the whole army. Reuben's stone, according to the Jewish writers (h), was the "sardius", and his flag was coloured red, and there were figured upon it mandrakes.”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 2:10
“The tabernacle or sacred tent of their Divine King, with the camp of the Levites around it (see on Nu 3:38), formed the center, as does the chief's in the encampment of all nomad people. In marching, this order was adhered to, with some necessary variations. Judah led the way, followed, it is most probable, by Issachar and Zebulun [Nu 10:14-16].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
John Calvin reads Reuben's command of the second standard as a consolation for the firstborn who had lost his birthright. Matthew Henry reads Elizur as a name calling God a rock. John Gill separates Reuben's host of 46,500 from the camp it heads.
Numbers 2:12-13
Simeon musters 59,300 here and 22,200 at the second census in Numbers 26:14, a fall of 37,100 and the heaviest loss of any tribe in the book. Numbers gives no reason, and some readers point to Zimri son of Salu, “the leader of a Simeonite family”, slain at Peor in Numbers 25:14. Simeon is also the one tribe Moses leaves unnamed when he blesses Israel in Deuteronomy 33.
Numbers 2:12
“And those which pitch by him shall be the tribe of Simeon,.... Under his standard, and on one side of it; Reuben and Simeon being brothers by the mother as well as the father's side, might well be thought to agree together; and Reuben being the eldest brother, and the eldest of all Jacob's sons, Simeon would not grudge to pitch under him: and the captain of the children of Simeon shall be Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai; of whom see Num 1:6.”
Simeon's 59,300 outnumber Reuben's 46,500, and Simeon still camps under Reuben's standard. John Calvin holds that only God's order could bring Simeon to accept that place. Matthew Henry expects Simeon to yield to his full brother.
Numbers 2:14-16
Gad's 45,650 is the only tribal figure in the census that does not end in a round hundred, and it is why the grand total at verse 32 ends in fifty. The south camp comes to 151,450, and “they shall set out second”.
Gad completes the south camp with 45,650. John Calvin says Gad, born to Leah's servant Zilpah, would accept serving under a son of Leah. Gad and Reuben later seek the same pastures in Gilead at Numbers 32:1.
Reuben's camp of 151,450 marches second. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that the two smaller camps, Reuben's and Ephraim's, march in the middle, with the strongest at the front and rear. Numbers 10:17-18 sets the Gershonites and Merarites with the tabernacle frame between Judah and Reuben.
Numbers 2:16
“And all that were numbered in the camp of Reuben were an hundred thousand and fifty and one thousand and four hundred and fifty, throughout their armies,.... 151,450 men.”
The tent stands in the middle, and the rule of the whole chapter follows, “They are to set out in the order they encamped”. The same ring of Levites surrounds the tent on the road as in camp. Numbers 10:17 and 10:21 show the Gershonites and Merarites carrying the frame early and the Kohathites the holy objects later, so that “the tabernacle was to be set up before their arrival”.
Numbers 2:17
“Then the tabernacle of the congregation shall set forward with the camp of the Levites,.... Which reached four miles, according to the Targum of Jonathan, as did Judah's.”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 2:17
“In the midst - This is not to be understood strictly, but largely; for in their march they were divided, and part of that tribe marched next after Judah, chap. x, 17, and the other part exactly in the midst of the camp.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ephraim on the west
Numbers 2:18-19
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.
Numbers 2:18
“On the west side shall be the standard of the camp of Ephraim, according to their armies,.... It was in the rear or behind, consisting of his tribe, and of the tribes of Manasseh and Benjamin, divided into several companies, and extended four miles, as the above Targum.”
Albert Barnes traces Elishama in 1 Chronicles 7:26-27, where his son is Nun and his grandson Joshua. The captain of Ephraim's standard is the grandfather of the man who would lead Israel into Canaan. Hoshea son of Nun goes out as Ephraim's spy at 13:8.
Numbers 2:20-21
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.
Manasseh, the elder of Joseph's sons, camps under the standard of Ephraim the younger. John Calvin says Manasseh, first by the law of nature, would obey only a divine decree. The figure is the 32,200 of 1:35.
Numbers 2:22-24
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.
Numbers 2:22
“Then the tribe of Benjamin,.... He was to pitch under the same standard of Ephraim, and the other side of it from that of Manasseh; the one being before, and the other behind, and the standard in the middle; See Gill on Num 2:7, and the captains of the sons of Benjamin shall be Abidan the son of Gideoni; of whom see Num 1:11.”
John Gill notes that Benjamin's 35,400 is the smallest host after Manasseh. Moses later calls Benjamin the beloved of the LORD, resting upon His shoulders, at Deuteronomy 33:12. The two smallest hosts share Ephraim's standard.
Numbers 2:23
“And his host, &c. That is, the host of Benjamin: and those that were numbered of them, were thirty and five thousand and four hundred. 35,400 men. The least number of all the tribes, excepting the tribe of Manasseh, Num 2:21; see Num 1:37.”
John Gill counts Ephraim's camp near eighty thousand below Judah's and places it first behind the tabernacle. Numbers 10:21-22 sets the Kohathites with the holy objects directly ahead of Ephraim's standard. The smallest camp follows the holy objects.
Numbers 2:24
“All that were numbered of the camp of Ephraim were an hundred thousand and eight thousand and an hundred, throughout their armies,.... 108,100 men. Which was the smallest of all the camps, and near eighty thousand fewer than the camp of Judah, Num 2:9, and they shall go forward in the third rank; and which was the first following the tabernacle.”
Dan on the north
Numbers 2:25-26
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.
Numbers 2:25
“The standard of the camp of Dan shall be on the north side by their armies,.... To the left of the tabernacle as encamped, and so was the left wing of the grand army; it consisted of the tribes of Dan, Asher, and Naphtali, in which were several divisions and companies, whose camp also the Targum of Jonathan says reached four miles.”
Dan leads the north camp though born to Rachel's servant Bilhah. John Calvin reads the grouping of the handmaids' sons as a way to keep a handmaid's son from being set over a son of Leah or of Rachel. Matthew Henry notes that the name Mahaneh-dan at Judges 13:25 keeps the camp of Dan in memory.
Numbers 2:27-30
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.
Asher camps between Dan and Naphtali with 41,500, the smallest host of the north. Pagiel son of Ocran commands, and John Gill confirms the figure against 1:41. At Judges 1:32 the Asherites live among the Canaanites.
John Gill places Naphtali by Dan's standard on the side opposite Asher. Dan and Naphtali are Bilhah's two sons, so the north camp sets full brothers side by side. Ahira commands, as at 1:15.
Numbers 2:29
“Then the tribe of Naphtali,.... That was to pitch by the same standard of Dan, on the other side of it: and the captain of the children of Naphtali shall be Ahira the son of Enan; who is mentioned Num 1:15.”
John Gill notes that his host here means the whole tribe, every man of twenty and over, and that the phrase carries this sense in every entry of the chapter. The north camp totals 157,600 and brings up the rear. Naphtali supplies 53,400 of it.
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.
Numbers 2:31
“The Camp of Daniel - The strongest camp next after Judah, and therefore he comes in the rear, as Judah marched in the front, that the tabernacle might be best guarded where there was most danger.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Every man by his own standard
The four camps add to 603,550: 186,400, 151,450, 108,100 and 157,600. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown compute that these soldiers alone, close in rank, would cover more than twelve square miles. Families, tents and baggage stretched the camp further.
Numbers 2:32
“In the Christian church we read of a throne (as in the tabernacle there was a mercy-seat) which is called a glorious high throne from the beginning ( Jer. xvii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Numbers 2:33-34
Levi is counted apart at 3:39 because it was taken “in place of every firstborn Israelite” at 3:12-13. Barnes carries the square camp to the square city of Revelation 21:16, Jewish writers cited by Gill give the standards a lion, a man, an ox and an eagle, and Missler sees a cross. Numbers 2 names only the sides, the leaders and the numbers, so those readings rest on their holders.
Numbers 2:33
“We gather from the book of Numbers that there may be something greater than Israel too. For there the whole of Israel is numbered and reckoned in twelve tribes, as under a fixed number. But the tribe of Levi, being of greater eminence than the others, is accounted extra to this number and never thought of as being one of Israel's number [of twelve].”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PROLOGUEpatristic
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Numbers 2:33
“Such was the ideal form of the encampment in the wilderness: a form reproduced in the square court with which the temple was eventually surrounded, and in the vision of the heavenly city as seen by Ezekiel Eze 48:20, and by John (Rev 21:16; compare Rev 20:9). Thus the camp of God’s earthly people was divinely ordered so as to set forth the completeness of His Church; and to illustrate by its whole arrangement, which was determined by the tabernacle in the center, both the dependance of all on God, and the access which all enjoyed to God.”
The march kept this order at Numbers 10:28. Matthew Henry notes that the tribes took their posts without murmuring or dispute. Henry adds that God assigned the places so that no tribe could charge Moses with favour.
Numbers 2:34
“Balaam was charmed with the sight of it: How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob! ch. xxiv. Thus the gospel church, called the camp of saints, ought to be compact according to the scripture model, every one knowing and keeping his place, and then all that wish well to the church rejoice, beholding their order, Col. ii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
How this psalm is built
The form: A camp order given as law, each side of the tent with its standard, its leader, its three tribes and its rank on the march, as Barnes classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The four camps listed in one form | Each side of the tent receives the same six things. They are the quarter it holds, the standard it camps under, the leader of its chief tribe, the two tribes beside it, the figure for each, and the camp total with its rank. John Gill sets the three tribes of each standard out as one camp named from its principal tribe and divided into companies.John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on Numbers 2:3 and on Numbers 2:10. | Numbers 2:3, Numbers 2:10, Numbers 2:18, Numbers 2:25 |
| The camp total and the rank in the column | Four verses close the four blocks with the same two clauses, the total of the camp and the place it takes on the march. John Gill gives the figure at each of them, 186,400 first, 151,450 second, 108,100 third and 157,600 last. The chapter uses those four lines to turn a map into a marching order.John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on Numbers 2:9, 2:16, 2:24 and 2:31. | Numbers 2:9, Numbers 2:16, Numbers 2:24, Numbers 2:31 |
| One speech from the first camp to the last | Verses 2 to 31 are one unbroken command to Moses and Aaron, and the narrative resumes only at verse 32 to report the totals and the obedience. John Gill places the speech after the numbering of chapter 1 and before the camp sets out, which is where the chapter itself stands.John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on Numbers 2:1. | Numbers 2:1, Numbers 2:31, Numbers 2:32 |
The camp read as an order of march
11 more paragraphs on the patterns
The four rank clauses make the chapter a timetable as well as a map. Numbers 10:14 records the column falling out in this order when the cloud lifts, with Judah first, and Numbers 10:25 calls Dan's camp the rereward of all the camps. The published exposition of Numbers 2 states the principle in one line, that position in the camp is position on the march.
Where the four totals land
The camp totals of verses 9, 16, 24 and 31 come to the 603,550 of verse 32, which is the figure Numbers 1:46 gives. Exodus 38:26 reached the same figure by another road, counting the half shekels paid by every man of twenty years and older toward the tabernacle. Two counts taken for two purposes agree down to the last fifty.
The standards, and what is known of them
Albert Barnes distinguishes the two words of verse 2. The standard marked the division or camp, so there were four of them, and the ensign marked the family. He holds the standard was probably a solid figure or emblem mounted on a pole, of the kind the Egyptians used (Notes, 1832 to 1869, on Numbers 2:2).
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown state the limit of the evidence plainly. They hold the ensigns necessary, since one standard for a tribe would have been invisible at the edges of so large a body. They add that we possess no authentic information as to their forms, material, colours and devices (Commentary Critical and Explanatory, 1871, on Numbers 2:2).
Three further readings stand on their holders. Barnes reports the tradition that assigns the four cherubic forms of Ezekiel 1:5 to 12 and Revelation 4:7 to the camps of Judah, Reuben, Ephraim and Dan. The forms are the lion, the man, the ox and the eagle. He notes that Genesis 49:9 gives the first some support and Deuteronomy 33:17 the third. John Gill reports the Jewish writers who give Reuben the sardius, a red flag and the figure of mandrakes (Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on Numbers 2:10). Chuck Missler reads the four forms as the faces of Ezekiel 1 and the outline of the camp as a cross (Learn the Bible in 24 Hours). The chapter names the sides, the captains and the numbers and says nothing of emblems or shape, so each of these readings rests on its holder.
The distance from the tent
Verse 2 holds distance and nearness in one sentence, since every tent faces the tabernacle and every tent stands far off from it. John Wesley reckons the distance at the 2,000 cubits Joshua 3:4 later sets between Israel and the ark (Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on Numbers 2:2). Albert Barnes gives the same figure and renders the Hebrew of the clause as over against, facing the tabernacle on every side.
The square and what later Scripture does with it
Albert Barnes reads the encampment as an ideal form reproduced twice afterward. It stands in the square court that came to surround the temple, and in the vision of the heavenly city at Ezekiel 48:20 and Revelation 21:16. He holds that the arrangement, fixed by the tabernacle at the centre, set forth both the dependence of all on God and the access all enjoyed to God (Notes, 1832 to 1869, on Numbers 2:33).
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on Numbers 2:3, where he prints a plan of the camp and reckons its area at about three square miles; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Numbers 2:10 to 31 and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on Numbers 2:3.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Chuck Missler, Learn the Bible in 24 Hours; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentary on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.