Reference: Encampment
Fausets
Below is represented the Israelite order of march and encampment (Numbers 2). This would be varied according to local requirements; but the ideal was reproduced in the square court with which the temple was surrounded, and in the heavenly city of Eze 48:20; Re 21:16; 20:9. The earthly camp exhibited the perfect symmetry of the church; the tabernacle in the middle denoted the dependence of all on Jehovah and the access of all to Him. The area of the camp was about three square miles. Living in families they did not occupy so much room as the same number of soldiers would occupy. The "standard" (degel, a glittering emblem on a pole) marked the division or camp, the "ensign" ('ot) the family.
Thus there were four standards, one for each "camp" of three tribes: according to tradition the four cherubic forms, the lion (Judah, Ge 49:9; Re 5:5), the ox (Ephraim, De 33:17), the man, and the eagle (Eze 1:26; 10:1; Re 4:4, etc.). Judah had the post of honor in front of the curtain of the tabernacle, along with Issachar and Zebulun, all three Leah's children, and led the van on march. Reuben, Leah's oldest son, with Simeon, Leah's second, and Gad, oldest of Leah's handmaid Zilpah's sous, formed the second camp. Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin, Rachel's descendants, formed the third camp. Dan, oldest of the handmaids' children, with Asher and Naphtali, handmaids' children, formed the fourth camp.
In coincidence with this arrangement, Nu 10:14, etc., represents Judah taking the lead in the march out of the wilderness of Sinai, Reuben was next, Ephraim was next, and Dan was rearward. The signal for march was given by a blast of two silver trumpets. The sanctity of the camp was maintained even in time of war. Among other nations ordinary rules of morality and propriety were then relaxed, as Lucan x. 407, observes: "no faith or regard for religion exists among men in camp" (nulla fides pietasque viris qui castra sequuntur). But in war especially Israel was to "keep from every wicked thing," and even from any breach of decorum or cleanliness, "for the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp to deliver thee and to give up thine enemies before thee, therefore shall thy camp be holy, that He see no unclean thing in thee and turn away from thee" (De 23:9-14).
All refuse was to be carried outside the camp. There the dead were to be buried (Le 10:4; 6:11). Contact with the dead, until purification, and leprosy excluded from it (Nu 5:2; 31:19). Ashes from the sacrifices were poured out in an appointed place outside the camp, where the entrails, skin, and horns, and all that was not offered in sacrifice, were burnt (Le 4:11-12; 6:11; 8:17; 24:14). There criminals were executed, and the sin offering bullock was burnt.
(compare as to the antitype Joh 19:17,20; Heb 13:12). So late as Hezekiah the temple was called "the tents of Jehovah" (2Ch 31:2; Ps 78:28; compare "a great host like the host of God" applied to David's adherents, 1Ch 12:22). The military camp was generally fixed on a hill and near water (1Sa 13:2-3,16,23; 17:3; 28:4; 29:1). The baggage wagons or else an earthwork formed a barrier round the camp. The machineh were movable camps as distinguished from the matsab, or netsib, standing camps (2Ch 17:2).
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Judah is a young lion; like a lion full of meat you have become great, my son; now he takes his rest like a lion stretched out and like an old lion; by whom will his sleep be broken?
And the skin of the ox and all its flesh, with its head and its legs and its inside parts and its waste, All the ox, he is to take away outside the circle of the tents into a clean place where the burned waste is put, and there it is to be burned on wood with fire.
Then having taken off his linen robes and put on other clothing, he is to take it away into a clean place, outside the tent-circle.
Then having taken off his linen robes and put on other clothing, he is to take it away into a clean place, outside the tent-circle.
But the ox, with its skin and its flesh and its waste, was burned with fire outside the tent-circle, as the Lord gave orders to Moses.
And Moses sent for Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel, the brother of Aaron's father, and said to them, Come near and take your brothers away from before the holy place, outside the tent-circle.
Take the curser outside the tent-circle; and let all in whose hearing the words were said put their hands on his head, and let him be stoned by all the people.
Give orders to the children of Israel to put outside the tent-circle every leper, and anyone who has any sort of flow from his body, and anyone who is unclean from the touch of the dead;
First the flag of the children of Judah went forward with their armies: and at the head of his army was Nahshon, the son of Amminadab.
You yourselves will have to keep outside the tent-circle for seven days, anyone of you who has put any person to death or come near a dead body; and on the third day and on the seventh day make yourselves and your prisoners clean.
When you go out to war and put your tents in position, keep from every evil thing. If any man among you becomes unclean through anything which has taken place in the night, he is to go out from the tent-circle and keep outside it: read more. But when evening comes near, let him take a bath: and after sundown he may come back to the tents. Let there be a place outside the tent-circle to which you may go; And have among your arms a spade; and when you have been to that place, let that which comes from you be covered up with earth: For the Lord your God is walking among your tents, to keep you safe and to give up into your hands those who are fighting against you; then let your tents be holy, so that he may see no unclean thing among you, and be turned away from you
He is a young ox, glory is his; his horns are the horns of the mountain ox, with which all peoples will be wounded, even to the ends of the earth: they are the ten thousands of Ephraim and the thousands of Manasseh.
And Saul took for himself three thousand men of Israel, of whom he kept two thousand with him in Michmash and in the mountain of Beth-el, and a thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah in the land of Benjamin: the rest of the people he sent back to their tents. And Jonathan made an attack on the armed force of the Philistines stationed at Gibeah; and news was given to the Philistines that the Hebrews were turned against them. And Saul had a horn sounded through all the land,
And Saul, with Jonathan his son and the people who were with them, was waiting in Geba in the land of Benjamin: but the tents of the Philistines were in Michmash.
The Philistines were stationed on the mountain on one side and Israel on the mountain on the other side: and there was a valley between them.
And the Philistines came together and put their forces in position in Shunem; and Saul got all Israel together and they took up their positions in Gilboa.
Now the Philistines got all their army together at Aphek: and the Israelites put their forces in position by the fountain in Jezreel.
And from day to day more supporters came to David, till he had a great army like the army of God.
He put forces in all the walled towns of Judah, and responsible chiefs in the land of Judah and in the towns of Ephraim, which Asa his father had taken.
Then Hezekiah put in order the divisions of the priests and Levites, every man in his division, in relation to his work, for the burned offerings and peace-offerings, and for the ordering of worship and for giving praise at the doors of the Lord's house.
And he let it come down into their resting-place, round about their tents.
And on the top of the arch which was over their heads was the form of a king's seat, like a sapphire stone; and on the form of the seat was the form of a man seated on it on high.
Then looking, I saw that on the arch which was over the head of the winged ones there was seen over them what seemed like a sapphire stone, having the form of a king's seat.
The size of the offering all together is to be twenty-five thousand by twenty-five thousand: you are to make the holy offering a square, together with the property of the town.
And he went out with his cross on him to the place which is named Dead Man's Head (in Hebrew, Golgotha):
The writing was seen by a number of the Jews, for the place where Jesus was put to death on the cross was near the town; and the writing was in Hebrew and Latin and Greek.
For this reason Jesus was put to death outside the walls, so that he might make the people holy by his blood.
And round about the high seat were four and twenty seats: and on them I saw four and twenty rulers seated, clothed in white robes; and on their heads crowns of gold.
And one of the rulers said to me, Do not be sad: see, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome, and has power to undo the book and its seven stamps.
And they went up over the face of the earth, and made a circle about the tents of the saints, and the well loved town: and fire came down out of heaven for their destruction.
And the town is square, as wide as it is long; and he took the measure of the town with the rod, one thousand and five hundred miles: it is equally long and wide and high.
Smith
primarily denoted the resting-place of an army or company of travellers at night,
and was hence applied to the army or caravan when on its march.
Ge 32:7-8; Ex 14:19; Jos 10:5; 11:4
The description of the camp of the Israelites, on their march from Egypt, Numb 2,3, supplies the greatest amount of information on the subject. The tabernacle, corresponding to the chieftains tent of an ordinary encampment, was placed in the centre, and around and facing it,
arranged in four grand divisions, corresponding to the four points of the compass, lay the host of Israel, according to their standards.
In the centre, round the tabernacle, and with no standard but the cloudy or fiery pillar which rested over it, were the tents of the priests and Levites. The former, with Moses and Aaron at their head, were encamped on the eastern side. The order of encampment was preserved on the march.
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Then Jacob was in great fear and trouble of mind: and he put all the people and the flocks and the herds and the camels into two groups; And said, If Esau, meeting one group, makes an attack on them, the others will get away safely.
So the servants with the offerings went on in front, and he himself took his rest that night in the tents with his people.
Then the angel of God, who had been before the tents of Israel, took his place at their back; and the pillar of cloud, moving from before them, came to rest at their back:
And it came about that in the evening little birds came up and the place was covered with them: and in the morning there was dew all round about the tents.
The children of Israel are to put up their tents, every man in his tent-circle round his flag.
And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, The children of Israel are to put up their tents in the order of their families, by the flags of their fathers' houses, facing the Tent of meeting on every side.
Then the Tent of meeting is to go forward, with the tents of the Levites, in the middle of the armies; in the same order as their tents are placed, they are to go forward, every man under his flag.
So the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon, were banded together, and went up with all their armies and took up their position before Gibeon and made war against it.
And they went out, they and all their armies with them, a great people, in number like the sand on the seaside, with horses and war-carriages in great number.