¹sn For this chapter, see C. E. Douglas, “The Twelve Houses of Israel,” JTS 37 (1936): 49-56; C. C. Roach, “The Camp in the Wilderness: A Sermon on Numbers 2:2,” Int 13 (1959): 49-54; and G. St. Clair, “Israel in Camp: A Study,” JTS 8 (1907): 185-217.
²tn Heb “a man by his own standard.”
³tn The imperfect tense is to be taken in the nuance of instruction.
⁴tn Heb “of/for the house of their fathers.”
⁵tn The Hebrew expression minneged (dg\N\m!) means “from before” or “opposite; facing” and “at some distance” or “away from the front of” (see BDB 617b; DCH 5:603-04).
⁶sn The Israelites were camping as a military camp, each tribe with the standards and emblems of the family. The standard was the symbol fastened to the end of a pole and carried to battle. It served to rally the tribe to the battle. The Bible nowhere describes these, although the serpent emblem of Numbers 21:8-9 may give a clue. But they probably did not have shapes of animals in view of the prohibition in the Decalogue. The standards may have been smaller for the families than the ones for the tribes. See further K. A. Kitchen, “Some Egyptian Background to the Old Testament,” TynBul 5,6 (1960): 11; and T. W. Mann, Divine Presence and Guidance in Israelite Tradition (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1969), 169-73.
⁷tn The sentence begins with a vav on a word that is not a finite verb, indicating a new section begins here. The verbal form is a participle with the article used substantivally, with the meaning “and/now those camping.” Many modern translations simply smooth it out to form a finite verb, and render it “[the divisions of Judah] shall camp.”
⁸tc The two synonyms might seem to be tautological, but this is fairly common and therefore acceptable in Hebrew prose (cf. Exod 26:18; 38:13; etc.).
⁹tn The sentence actually has “[those camping…are] the standard of the camp of Judah according to their divisions.”
¹⁰tn Or “will be.”
¹¹tc The expression “and his divisions and those numbered of them” is somewhat tautological. The words are synonyms used for statistical purposes, and so neither should be simply deleted.
¹²tn Heb “by him” [i.e., Judah].
¹³tn This part has been supplied; the text simply has “the tribe of Zebulun.”
¹⁴tn The verb is nasa‘ (usn), “to journey, travel, set out,” and here, “to move camp.” Judah will go first, or, literally, at the head of the nation, when they begin to travel.
¹⁵tn Here and throughout the line is literally “[under] the standard of the camp of Reuben…according to their divisions.”
¹⁶tn The Hebrew text simply has “and the tribe of Gad.”
¹⁷tc The Leningrad codex, upon which BHS is based, has “Reuel” here. In reading “Deuel” the translation presented above follows many medieval Hebrew manuscripts, SP, and the Latin Vulgate. Cf. Num 1:14.
¹⁸tn The Hebrew expression is ‘al-yado (ody`-lu^), “upon his hand.” This clearly refers to a specifically designated place for each man.
¹⁹tn Here too the Hebrew text simply has “and the tribe of Benjamin.”
²⁰tn The Hebrew text has “and the tribe of Naphtali.”
²¹tn Heb “the house of their fathers.” So also in v. 34.
²²tn The Hebrew word is ken (/K@), “thus, so.”