2:3 “Now those who will be camping 1 on the east, toward the sunrise, 2 are the divisions 3 of the camp of Judah under their standard. The leader of the people of Judah is 4 Nahshon son of Amminadab.
2:10 “On the south will be the divisions of the camp of Reuben under their standard. 5 The leader of the people of Reuben is Elizur son of Shedeur.
1:52 “The Israelites will camp according to their divisions, each man in his camp, and each man by his standard.
10:14 The standard 6 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.
10:25 The standard of the camp of the Danites set out, which was the rear guard 7 of all the camps by their companies; over his company was Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai.
1 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.”
2 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.).
3 tn The sentence actually has “[those camping…are] the standard of the camp of Judah according to their divisions.”
4 tn Or “will be.”
5 tn Here and throughout the line is literally “[under] the standard of the camp of Reuben…according to their divisions.”
6 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 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.