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).
See Verses Found in Dictionary
Judah, a lion's whelp; from the green leaf, my son, thou didst go up: bending, lying down, as a lion, and as a lioness: who shall raise him up?
And the skin of the bullock and all its flesh with its head and with its legs, and its bowels and its dung, And he brought forth all the bullock to from without the camp to a clean place, to the pouring out of the ashes, and burnt it upon the wood in fire: upon the pouring out of the ashes it shall be burnt
And he put off his garments and put on other garments, and brought forth the ashes without the camp, to a clean place.
And he put off his garments and put on other garments, and brought forth the ashes without the camp, to a clean place.
And the bullock and his skin, and his flesh, and his dung, he burnt in fire without the camp, as Jehovah commanded Moses.
And Moses will call to Mishael and to Elzaphan, sons of Uzziel, Aaron's uncle, and say to them, Draw near; lift up your brethren from before the holy place, to without the camp.
Bring him vilifying, without the camp; and all they hearing, placed their hands upon his head, and all the assembly stoned him.
Command the sons of Israel, and they shall send forth from the camp every one leprous, and every one flowing, and every one unclean for the soul:
And the flag of the camp of Judah will remove first according to their army: and over his army, Nashon, son of Amminadab.
And encamp ye without the camp seven days: every one killing a soul, and every one touching upon the wounded, ye shall be purified in the third day, and in the seventh day, ye and your captivity.
When the camp shall go forth against thine enemies, and watch thyself from every evil word. If there shall be in thee a man that shall not be clean from chance of the night, and he shall go forth without the camp; he shall not come in to the midst of the camp: read more. And it was turning to evening, he shall wash in water: and as the sun went down he shall come into the midst of the camp. And a hand shall be to thee from without the camp, and thou shalt go forth there without: And a peg shall be to thee upon thy utensil: and it was in thy sitting down without, and digging with it, and turn thou back and cover thy excrement: For Jehovah thy God goes in the midst of thy camp to deliver thee, and to give thine enemies before thy face; and thy camp was holy; and he will not see in thee the nakedness of a word and turn back from after thee.
The honor to him the first-born of the bullock, his horns the horns of the unicorn: with them he will thrust the peoples together to the extremity of the earth: these the ten thousands of Ephraim, and these the thousands of Manasseh
And Saul will choose to him three thousand from Israel; and two thousand will be with Saul in Michmash, and in the mount of the house of God, and a thousand were with Jonathan in the hill of Benjamin: and the remainder of the people he sent a man to his tent. And Jonathan will strike a garrison of Philisteim which is in the hill, and Philisteim will hear, and Saul will clang upon the trumpet in all the land, saying, The Hebrews shall hear.
And Saul, and Jonathan his son, and the people found with them, dwelt in the hill of Benjamin: and the rovers encamped in Michmash.
And the rovers standing on the mountain from hence, and Israel standing on the mountain from thence, and the valley between them.
And the rovers will gather together, and will come and encamp in Shunem: and Saul will gather together all Israel, and they will encamp in Gilboa.
And the rovers will gather together all their camp to Aphek: and Israel encamping by a fountain which is in Jezreel.
For at the time day by day they will come to David to he him, even a great camp as the camp of God.
And he will give an army in all the fortified cities of Judah, and he will give garrisons in the land of Judah and in the cities of Ephraim which Asa his father took.
And Hezekiah will set up the divisions of the priests and the Levites for their divisions each according to the mouth of his service to the priests and to the Levites for the burnt-offering and for the peace, to serve and to confess and to praise, in the gates of the camp of Jehovah.
And it shall fall in the midst of his camp, round about to his habitations.
And from above to the expansion which was over their head as the appearance of a sapphire stone: the likeness of a throne, and over the likeness of a throne, the likeness as the appearance of a man upon it from above.
And I shall see, and behold, to the which is over the head of the cherubs, as a stone of sapphire, as the vision of the likeness of a throne was seen over them.
All the oblation five and twenty thousand by five and twenty thousand: four square ye shall lift up the oblation of holiness for a possession of the city.
And they took Jesus, and led away: and bearing his cross he went out into a place called Kranium, which in Hebraic is called Golgotha:
Then read many of the Jews this title: for the place was near the city where Jesus was crucified: and it was written in Hebrew, Greek, Roman.
Wherefore also Jesus, that he might consecrate the people by his own blood, suffered without the camp.
And round about the throne twenty-four thrones; and sitting upon the thrones I saw twenty-four elders, surrounded with white garments; and they had golden crowns upon their heads.
And one of the elders says to me, Weep not: behold, the Lion conquered, he being of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, to open the book, and to loose its seven seals.
And they went up upon the breadth of the earth, and they surrounded the camp of the holy, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
And the city lies quadrangular, and her length is so large, such also the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, at twelve thousand stadia. Her length, breadth, and height are equal.
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.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And Jacob will be greatly afraid and it will press upon him: and he will divide the people which were with him, and the sheep and the oxen, and the camels, into two camps. And he will say, If Esau shall come to the one camp and smite it, and the remaining camp was to escape.
And the gift will pass over before his face, and he remained in that night in the camp.
And the messenger of God going before the camp of Israel will remove, and will go from behind them; and the pillar of the cloud will remove from before them, and will stand from behind them,
And it shall be in the evening, the quail shall come up and shall cover the camp: and in the morning the dew was lying round about the camp.
And the sons of Israel encamped each by his camp, and each by his flag for their warfare.
And Jehovah will speak to Moses and to Aaron, saying, A man by his flag with the ensign according to the house of their fathers, shall the sons of Israel encamp: from over against the tent of appointment round about shall they encamp.
And the tent of appointment shall be removed, the camp of the Levites in the midst of the camp. As they shall encamp, so shall they remove, every man upon his hand according to their flags.
And the five kings of the Amorites will be gathered together and will come up: the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, the king of Eglon, they and all their camps, and they will encamp against Gibeon, and they will war against her.
And they will come forth, they, and their camps with them, many people, as the sand upon the lip of the sea for multitude, and horse and chariot exceeding many.