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 lion's cub. From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He bowed down; he crouched like a lion and as a lioness. Who shall rouse him?
But the bull's skin and its meat, in addition to its head, {its lower leg bones}, its inner parts, and its offal-- he shall carry all of the bull {outside the camp} to a ceremonially clean place, to the fatty ashes' dump, and he shall burn it on wood in the fire; it must be burned up on the fatty ashes' dump.
And he shall take off his garments and put on other garments, and he shall bring out the fatty ashes {outside the camp} to a ceremonially clean place,
And he shall take off his garments and put on other garments, and he shall bring out the fatty ashes {outside the camp} to a ceremonially clean place,
but he burned the bull and its skin and its meat and its offal in the fire {outside the camp}, [just] as Yahweh had commanded Moses.
Then Moses summoned Mishael and Elzaphan the sons of Uzziel, Aaron's uncle, and he said to them, "Come forward. Carry your brothers from {the front of} the sanctuary to {outside the camp}."
"Bring the curser {outside the camp}, and all the hearers shall place their hands on his head, and the whole community shall stone him.
"Command the {Israelites}: they must send everyone from the camp who is afflicted with a rash, everyone with a fluid discharge, and everyone unclean through [contact with] a corpse.
The standard of the camp of the descendants of Judah set out for the first time according to their divisions, with Nahshon son of Amminadab over its division.
And you, camp outside the camp seven days; all who killed a person and all who touched the slain purify yourselves on the third day and on the seventh day, you and your captives.
"If you go out to encamp against your enemies, then you shall guard against [doing] anything evil. "If [there] is among you a man that is not clean because of a seminal emission {during the night}, he shall go outside the camp; he shall not come within the camp. read more. {And then} toward the {coming} of the evening, he shall bathe with water, and at the going down of the sun, he may come to the midst of the camp. "And there shall be for you a designated place outside the camp; {and you shall go there to relieve yourself}, and a digging tool shall [be included] in addition to your [other] utensils for yourself; {and then} {when you relieve yourself} outside [the camp] you shall dig with it, and [then] you shall turn, and you shall cover your excrement. For Yahweh your God [is] walking about in the midst of your camp to deliver you and {to hand your enemies over to you before you}, and so let your camp be holy, so that he shall not see in it {anything indecent}, and he shall turn away {from going with you}.
[As] the firstborn of his ox, majesty {belongs to him}, and his horns [are] [the] horns of a wild ox; with them he drives people together, and they [are] the myriads of Ephraim, and they [are] the thousands of Manasseh."
He chose for himself three thousand from Israel. Two thousand [of these] were with Saul at Micmash in the hill country of Bethel, and a thousand were with Jonathan at Gibeah in Benjamin. He sent away the rest of the people, each to his tent. Jonathan defeated the garrison of [the] Philistines that [was] at Geba, and [the] Philistines heard [about it]. Then Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying, "Let the Hebrews hear!"
Saul and Jonathan his son and the army that remained with them [were] staying in Geba [of] Benjamin, and [the] Philistines encamped at Micmash.
[The] Philistines were standing on the hill on one side and [the army of] Israel was standing on the hill on the other side with the valley between them.
Then [the] Philistines assembled and came and encamped at Shunem, so Saul assembled all Israel, and they encamped at Gilboa.
Now [the] Philistines assembled all their forces at Aphek, and Israel [was] encamped at the spring that [is] in Jezreel.
{Day in and day out} they came to David to help him until [there was] a great army, like the army of God.
And he put troops in all the fortified cities of Judah, and put garrisons in the land of Judah and in the cities of Ephraim that Asa his father had taken.
And Hezekiah appointed working groups of the priests and the Levites, each according to their divisions, {according to the service for priests and Levites}, for burnt offerings, for peace offerings, to serve, to give thanks, and to praise in the gates of the camps of Yahweh.
He caused [them] to fall in the midst of his camp, all around his dwellings.
And from above the expanse that [was] above their heads [there was] the likeness of a throne, {looking like a sapphire}, and above the likeness of the throne [was] a likeness similar to [the] appearance of a human on it, [but] {above it}.
And I looked, and look! On the expanse that [was] above the head of the cherubim [something] like a stone of sapphire, [and] like [the] appearance of [the] shape of a throne it appeared above them.
All of the contribution, twenty-five thousand by twenty five thousand [cubits] square, you shall set apart [as] {the holy district} [along] with the property of the city.
and carrying for himself the cross, he went out to the [place] called The Place of a Skull (which is called Golgotha in Aramaic),
So many of the Jews read this notice, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city. And it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, [and] in Greek.
Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the gate, in order that he might sanctify the people by his own blood.
And around the throne [were] twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones [were] twenty-four elders dressed in white clothing, and on their heads [were] gold crowns.
And one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep! Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.
And they went up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the fortified camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and consumed them.
And the city is laid out as a square, and its length is the same as [its] width. And he measured the city with the measuring rod at twelve thousand stadia; the length and the width and the height of it 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.
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Then Jacob was very frightened and distressed. So he divided the people, flocks, cattle, and camels that [were] with him into two companies. And he thought, "If Esau comes to one company and destroys it, the remaining company will be [able] to escape."
So the gift passed on before him, but he himself spent that night in the camp.
And the angel of God who was going before the camp of Israel set out and went behind them. And the column of cloud set out ahead of them, and it stood [still] behind them,
And so it was, in the evening, the quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning, a layer of dew was all around the camp.
The {Israelites} will encamp, each in their own camp, and each by their own banner according to their divisions.
Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, "The {Israelites} will encamp each with his standard, with a banner according to {their families}; they will encamp around the tent of assembly.
"The tent of assembly the camp of the Levites will set out in the midst of the camps; they will set out just as they encamped, {each according to their standards}.
And 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, gathered [together] and went up, they and all their forces, and {they laid siege to Gibeon} and made war against it.
They came out, they and all their armies with them, [as] a great army like the sand on the seashore, with very many horses and chariots.