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Verse 1. - The Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron. Probably when they had finished the census, and brought the results into the tabernacle.

Verse 2. - Shall pitch by his own standard. We are not told how they had pitched hitherto; the tribal and family order now enforced was the natural order, but in the absence of precise directions would sometimes be departed from. With the ensign. Rather, "ensigns" (othoth in the plural). Each tribe, it would seem (see verse 31), had its standard (degel), and each family in the tribe its ensign (oth). Far off. Rather, "over against," i.e., facing the tabernacle, with a certain space (perhaps 2000 cubits, Joshua 3:4) between.

Verse 3. - On the east. The van, the post of honour. The general direction indeed of their march was northwards, not eastwards; but nothing can obliterate the natural pre-eminence given to the east by the sunrise, the scattering of light upon the earth, the daily symbol of the day-spring from on high. The standard of the camp of Judah. Judah led the way not because he was the greatest in number, for the order of the tribes was not determined by this consideration, but because of his place in prophecy, and as the ancestor of the Messiah (Genesis 49:10). According to Aben Ezra and other Jewish expositors, the device upon the standard of Judah was a young lion, and this agrees with Revelation 5:5. The same authorities assign to Reuben a man, to Ephraim an ox (cf. Deuteronomy 33:17), to Dan an eagle. If it were so, we should find in these banners the origin of the forms of the living creatures in the visions of Ezekiel and St. John (Ezekiel 1:26; Ezekiel 10:1; Revelation 4:4-6), unless, indeed, the devices on the standards were themselves taken from the symbolic forms of the cherubim in the tabernacle, and these in their turn borrowed from the religious art of Egypt. But the tradition of the Jews is too fluctuating to carry any weight. The Targum of Palestine assigns to Judea the lion, but to Reuben a stag, to Ephraim a young man, and to Dan a basilisk serpent.

Verse 5. - Next unto him. Whether the leading tribe occupied the center or one extreme of its own side of the encampment is a matter of mere speculation.

Verse 9. - These shall first set forth. No order to set forth had been given, but the necessity of doing so was understood, and is here anticipated, as in Numbers 1:51.

Verse 14. - Reuel. Probably an error of transcription for Deuel, which actually appears here in many MSS. The Septuagint, however, has Raguel (see Numbers 1:14; Numbers 7:42, etc.). The error is utterly unimportant, except as proving the possibility of errors in the sacred text.

Verse 17. - Then the tabernacle... shall set forward. Thus it was provided that, whether at rest or on the march, the Divine habitation should be exactly in the midst of Israel.

Verse 24. - All that were numbered of the camp of Ephraim. All the descendants of Rachel, forming at this time the smallest of the four divisions, although destined to become very numerous. Their association in the camp was continued in the promised land, for the greater part of their territory was coterminous. Subsequently, however, the great division of the kingdom separated Benjamin for ever from his brethren. In the third rank. Immediately behind the tabernacle. This position is clearly alluded to in Psalm 80:1, 2.