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10. Silver Trumpets

¹ The LORD said to Moses: ² “Make two trumpets of hammered silver, and use them for calling the community together and for having the camps set out. ³ When both are sounded, the whole community is to assemble before you at the entrance to the tent of meeting. ⁴ If only one is sounded, the leaders—the heads of the clans of Israel—are to assemble before you. ⁵ When a trumpet blast is sounded, the tribes camping on the east are to set out. ⁶ At the sounding of a second blast, the camps on the south are to set out. The blast will be the signal for setting out. ⁷ To gather the assembly, blow the trumpets, but not with the signal for setting out.

⁸ “The sons of Aaron, the priests, are to blow the trumpets. This is to be a lasting ordinance for you and the generations to come. ⁹ When you go into battle in your own land against an enemy who is oppressing you, sound a blast on the trumpets. Then you will be remembered by the LORD your God and rescued from your enemies. ¹⁰ Also at your times of rejoicing—your appointed festivals and New Moon feasts—you are to sound the trumpets over your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, and they will be a memorial for you before your God. I am the LORD your God.”

The Israelites Leave Sinai

¹¹ On the twentieth day of the second month of the second year, the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle of the covenant law. ¹² Then the Israelites set out from the Desert of Sinai and traveled from place to place until the cloud came to rest in the Desert of Paran. ¹³ They set out, this first time, at the LORD’s command through Moses.

¹⁴ The divisions of the camp of Judah went first, under their standard. Nahshon son of Amminadab was in command. ¹⁵ Nethanel son of Zuar was over the division of the tribe of Issachar, ¹⁶ and Eliab son of Helon was over the division of the tribe of Zebulun. ¹⁷ Then the tabernacle was taken down, and the Gershonites and Merarites, who carried it, set out.

¹⁸ The divisions of the camp of Reuben went next, under their standard. Elizur son of Shedeur was in command. ¹⁹ Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai was over the division of the tribe of Simeon, ²⁰ and Eliasaph son of Deuel was over the division of the tribe of Gad. ²¹ Then the Kohathites set out, carrying the holy things. The tabernacle was to be set up before they arrived.

²² The divisions of the camp of Ephraim went next, under their standard. Elishama son of Ammihud was in command. ²³ Gamaliel son of Pedahzur was over the division of the tribe of Manasseh, ²⁴ and Abidan son of Gideoni was over the division of the tribe of Benjamin.

²⁵ Finally, as the rear guard for all the units, the divisions of the camp of Dan set out under their standard. Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai was in command. ²⁶ Pagiel son of Okran was over the division of the tribe of Asher, ²⁷ and Ahira son of Enan was over the division of the tribe of Naphtali. ²⁸ This was the order of march for the Israelite divisions as they set out.

²⁹ Now Moses said to Hobab son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses’ father-in-law, “We are setting out for the place about which the LORD said, ‘I will give it to you.’ Come with us and we will treat you well, for the LORD has promised good things to Israel.”

³⁰ He answered, “No, I will not go; I am going back to my own land and my own people.”

³¹ But Moses said, “Please do not leave us. You know where we should camp in the wilderness, and you can be our eyes. ³² If you come with us, we will share with you whatever good things the LORD gives us.”

³³ So they set out from the mountain of the LORD and traveled for three days. The ark of the covenant of the LORD went before them during those three days to find them a place to rest. ³⁴ The cloud of the LORD was over them by day when they set out from the camp.

³⁵ Whenever the ark set out, Moses said,

   “Rise up, LORD!
   May your enemies be scattered;
   may your foes flee before you.”

³⁶ Whenever it came to rest, he said,

“Return, LORD,
to the countless thousands of Israel.”

14. In the first place went the standard of the camp The actual order of march is here described. The whole people, with the exception of the Levites, is divided into four hosts, or parts, since four of the tribes were set over the others, so as to have two under the command of each. And this was the mode of proceeding, that whenever they halted anywhere, the four standards encompassed the sanctuary and the Ark of the Covenant from the four quarters of the world; whilst on the march, the Levites carrying the tabernacle, according to the burdens respectively imposed upon them, were mixed with the several bands. The Ark, borne upon the shoulders of the Levites, preceded the whole army, in order that all might more confidently follow, God thus manifestly shewing them the way. Nahshon, of the tribe of Judah, led the first host; Elizur, of the tribe of Reuben, the second; Elishama, of the tribe of Ephraim, the third; and Ahiezer, of the tribe of Dan, the fourth. It is obvious that in the precedency given to the tribe of Judah, God in some degree afforded an anticipation of the prophecy of Jacob; for the Reubenites, being descended from the first-born, would not have willingly abandoned their position, unless that right had been transferred to the tribe of Judah by God’s decree, pronounced through the mouth of Jacob. Not that the sovereignty and royal power was actually his before the time of David, but because God would have a single spark to shine in the midst of the thick darkness, whereby He might cherish the hope of the promised salvation in every heart; and that thus the dignity of this tribe might at length more readily reduce all to obedience. Herein, however, it appeared how perverse and intractable was the spirit of that greater portion of them who strove against the divine decree in their rejection of David.

Reuben occupied the second place, as an alleviation of his disgrace. Again, by the subjection of the tribe of Manasseh to the posterity of Ephraim, in this respect, too, the prophecy of the same patriarch was fulfilled. Nor does there seem to be any other reason why the fourth standard should have been given to the tribe of Dan, except because Jacob had declared, “Dan shall judge his people.” (Genesis 49:16,) by which expression his pre-eminence was denoted.

Although it may be that the four standard-bearing tribes were chosen from their strength and the numbers of their people, still, unless the children of Reuben and Manasseh had been thoroughly persuaded that their degradation was in accordance with the command of God, their jealousy would never have suffered them calmly to submit themselves to others, whose superiors they were by the ordinary rules of nature. Their self-restraint, therefore, was praiseworthy, in that voluntary subjection kept them within bounds, without the application of any power of compulsion; and at the end, Moses records that it was not once only that they thus advanced, but that they observed the same order and regulations during the whole course of their travel, and that their camp was always so arranged that no contention arose to disturb them.