1:52 “The Israelites will camp according to their divisions, each man in his camp, and each man by his standard.
2:10 “On the south will be the divisions of the camp of Reuben under their standard. 3 The leader of the people of Reuben is Elizur son of Shedeur.
2:18 “On the west will be the divisions of the camp of Ephraim under their standard. The leader of the people of Ephraim is Elishama son of Amihud.
2:25 “On the north will be the divisions of the camp of Dan, under their standards. The leader of the people of Dan is Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai.
10:14 The standard 4 of the camp of the Judahites set out first according to their companies, and over his company was Nahshon son of Amminadab.
10:18 The standard of the camp of Reuben set out according to their companies; over his company was Elizur son of Shedeur.
33:1 5 These are the journeys of the Israelites, who went out of the land of Egypt by their divisions under the authority 6 of Moses and Aaron.
2:3 “Now those who will be camping 12 on the east, toward the sunrise, 13 are the divisions 14 of the camp of Judah under their standard. The leader of the people of Judah is 15 Nahshon son of Amminadab.
2:32 These are the Israelites, numbered according to their families. 17 All those numbered in the camps, by their divisions, are 603,550.
10:25 The standard of the camp of the Danites set out, which was the rear guard 18 of all the camps by their companies; over his company was Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai.
1 tn Or “journeyings of.”
2 tn The verb is the preterite with vav (ו) consecutive. But in this sentence it should be subordinated as a temporal clause to the preceding statement, even though it follows it.
3 tn Here and throughout the line is literally “[under] the standard of the camp of Reuben…according to their divisions.”
5 sn The “standard” (דֶּגֶל, degel) was apparently some kind of a symbol put up on a pole to signify the tribal hosts. R. de Vaux thought it simply referred to a pole or a mast, but that would not distinguish tribes (Ancient Israel, 226-27).
7 sn This material can be arranged into four sections: from Egypt to Sinai (vv. 1-15), the wilderness wanderings (vv. 16-36), from Kadesh to Moab (vv. 37-49), and final orders for Canaan (vv. 50-56).
8 tn Heb “hand.”
9 tn The verb (פָּקַד, paqad) means “to visit, appoint, muster, number.” The word is a common one in scripture. It has as its basic meaning the idea of “determining the destiny” of someone, by appointing, mustering, or visiting. When God “visits,” it is a divine intervention for either blessing or cursing. Here it is the taking of a census for war (see G. André, Determining the Destiny [ConBOT], 16).
10 tn The construction uses the participle “going out” followed by the noun “army.” It describes everyone “going out in a military group,” meaning serving in the army. It was the duty of every able-bodied Israelite to serve in this “peoples” army. There were probably exemptions for the infirm or the crippled, but every male over twenty was chosen. For a discussion of warfare, see P. C. Craigie, The Problem of War in the Old Testament, and P. D. Miller, “The Divine Council and the Prophetic Call to War,” VT 18 (1968): 100-107.
11 tn The text simply has “from twenty years old and higher.”
12 tn Heb “and up.”
13 tn The noun (צָבָא, tsava’) means “army” or “military group.” But the word can also be used for nonmilitary divisions of labor (Num 4:3).
11 tn The sentence begins with a vav (ו) on a word that is not a finite verb, indicating a new section begins here. The verbal form is a participle with the article used substantivally, with the meaning “and/now those camping.” Many English versions employ a finite verb; cf. KJV “on the east side…shall they of the standard of the camp of Judah pitch.”
12 tc The two synonyms might seem to be tautological, but this is fairly common and therefore acceptable in Hebrew prose (cf. Exod 26:18; 38:13; etc.).
13 tn The sentence actually has “[those camping…are] the standard of the camp of Judah according to their divisions.”
14 tn Or “will be.”
13 tn The verb is נָסָע (nasa’): “to journey, travel, set out,” and here, “to move camp.” Judah will go first, or, literally, at the head of the nation, when they begin to travel.
15 tn Heb “the house of their fathers.” So also in v. 34.
17 tn The MT uses a word that actually means “assembler,” so these three tribes made up a strong rear force recognized as the assembler of all the tribes.