Israel, Listed In the Camps by Their Companies (2:1-34)
Neal Pollard
Again, in this cycle of Numbers, the people are commanded by the Lord through Moses and Aaron (1) and, to their credit, “Thus did the people of Israel. According to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so they” did (33-34). What a great beginning to this final leg of the exodus! Numbers two moves from the total number of the people to how they set up camp.
We have the orderly arrangement. The east side of the tabernacle and Levites are Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. The south side of the tabernacle and Levites are Reuben, Simeon, and Gad. To the west are Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin. To the north side are Dan, Asher, and Naphtali. The purpose for this arrangement is explained at the very end of the chapter. Moses writes, “So they camped by their standards, and so they set out, each one in his clan, according to his fathers’ house” (34b).
Consider this. “The twelve Tribes are divided into four corps, which encamp about the centre of the Levitical sanctuary, and that in the order of East, South, West, and North. The four leading tribes are Judah, Reuben, Ephraim, and Dan. To Judah, the first leader-tribe, with its camp in the East, are joined Issachar and Zebulun, who also were sons of Leah; a very strong chief force at the Tan of the army. To the south was the camp of Reuben in conjunction with the tribes of Simeon and Gad. It should be noted in this connection, that the tribe of Simeon at this time numbered many more warriors than Reuben. On the west Ephraim was encamped, at the head of Manasseh and Benjamin. Here then all the children of Rachel are united. To the north Asher and Naphtali are encamped under the leadership of the tribe of Dan. Here with Dan the adopted son of Rachel, are associated his brother Naphtali and his half-brother Asher” (Lange, 24-25).
They were to mobilize in orderly fashion, too. Verse 17 reveals, “as they camp, so shall they set out, each in position, standard by standard.” Thus, God, setting up the tabernacle and the various divisions of the Levites with buffers on all four sides, also set up the order and direction of their setting out when it was time for battle. How the Levites encamped will be explained in the next chapter.
We have the raw numbers. It was important enough to God for subsequent readers to have the population numbers that He preserved them in Scripture. In Numbers 1:46, Moses gives the total number of the fighting men as 603,550. The math works in chapter two. Judah has 74,600, Issachar has 54,400, Zebulun has 57,400, Reuben has 46,500, Simeon has 59,300, Gad has 46,650, Ephraim has 40,500, Manasseh has 32,200, Benjamin has 35,400, Dan has 62,700, Asher has 41,500, and Naphtali has 53,400. This harmonizes and shows us the strength of Israel’s fighting force at the time they were to go in and take Canaan.
We have the heart of the camp. The “tent of meeting” will be mentioned a whopping 78 times in Numbers. That is well over one-third of all references to it in the Pentateuch. It is the figurative heart of Israel, the place where God communes with them in worship. Yet, it also literally at the heart, or center, of the encampment. Verse 2 says, “They shall camp around the tent of meeting at a distance.” Verse 17 says, “Then the tent of meeting shall set out with the camp of the Levites in the midst of the camps; just as they camp, so they shall set out, every man in his place by their standards.” As the symbolic presence of God, He positions the camp at the very middle and focal point of their entire population. Let us not miss that this is the position He always seeks to have in His children’s lives.
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