Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Numbers 1:52
And the children of Israel shall pitch their tents, every man by his own camp, and every man by his own standard, throughout their hosts.
And the children of Israel shall pitch their tents, every man by his own camp,…. There were four, unless every tribe was a camp, and so then there were twelve camps, besides the camp of the Levites: the Targum of Jonathan is,
“by the house of his troop,”
the regiment to which he belonged, every tribe or camp having various troops or regiments in it:
and every man by his own standard throughout their hosts; there were four standards, and three tribes to each standard, which were placed east, west, north, and south of the tabernacle, as is at large described in the following chapter.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(52) By his own standard.It appears from Num. 2:3; Num. 2:10; Num. 2:18; Num. 2:25, that there were four standardsviz., those of Judah, Reuben, Ephraim, and Dancorresponding to the four camps, each consisting of three tribes, which pitched round the tent of meeting.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
52. By his own camp The order of encamping will be explained in the next chapter.
By his own standard , degel, as being conspicuous. Standards and ensigns were requisite for preserving the order of the march and of the camp. The degel of the text were probably the large banners which marked the four grand divisions of the camp.
They were, according to the Rabbies, wrought with embroidery, and that of Judah displayed a lion, (Gen 49:9😉 Reuben, a man; Ephraim, a bull, (Deu 33:17😉 and Dan, the picture of the cherubim or flying eagle. The same symbols are found in Rev 4:7. That standards with similar devices were in use before this date is proved by the battle pictures on ancient Egyptian monuments of standards of an umbrella or fan-like form, made of ostrich feathers or shawls. To this tradition of the Rabbies may be opposed the hostility of the Jews in subsequent ages to standards with images, such as the Roman eagles. They made this the ground of their suit to Vitellius, that he would not cross their territory, but march another way. Nevertheless to a nation of freedmen, many of whom could not read, a pictured standard might be as necessary as pictured signs, like the boar’s head in the streets of London three centuries ago. The Targumists say that the tribal standards were distinguished by the colours of the precious stones in the breastplate of the high priest, and that the four great banners of the four grand divisions of the camp were tri-colours, each combining the colours of the three tribes over which it floated.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Num 2:2, Num 2:34, Num 10:1-36, Num 24:2
Reciprocal: Num 9:19 – kept the Num 18:22 – come nigh