"2The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 2 “The people of Israel shall camp each by his own standard, with the banners of their fathers' houses. They shall camp facing the tent of meeting on every side. 3 Those to camp on the east side toward the sunrise shall be of the standard of the camp of Judah by their companies, the chief of the people of Judah being Nahshon the son of Amminadab, 4 his company as listed being 74,600. 5 Those to camp next to him shall be the tribe of Issachar, the chief of the people of Issachar being Nethanel the son of Zuar, 6 his company as listed being 54,400. 7 Then the tribe of Zebulun, the chief of the people of Zebulun being Eliab the son of Helon, 8 his company as listed being 57,400. 9 All those listed of the camp of Judah, by their companies, were 186,400. They shall set out first on the march.
10 “On the south side shall be the standard of the camp of Reuben by their companies, the chief of the people of Reuben being Elizur the son of Shedeur,11 his company as listed being 46,500. 12 And those to camp next to him shall be the tribe of Simeon, the chief of the people of Simeon being Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai, 13 his company as listed being 59,300. 14 Then the tribe of Gad, the chief of the people of Gad being Eliasaph the son of Reuel, 15 his company as listed being 45,650. 16 All those listed of the camp of Reuben, by their companies, were 151,450. They shall set out second.
17 “Then the tent of meeting shall set out, with the camp of the Levites in the midst of the camps; as they camp, so shall they set out, each in position, standard by standard.
18 “On the west side shall be the standard of the camp of Ephraim by their companies, the chief of the people of Ephraim being Elishama the son of Ammihud, 19 his company as listed being 40,500. 20 And next to him shall be the tribe of Manasseh, the chief of the people of Manasseh being Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur, 21 his company as listed being 32,200. 22 Then the tribe of Benjamin, the chief of the people of Benjamin being Abidan the son of Gideoni, 23 his company as listed being 35,400. 24 All those listed of the camp of Ephraim, by their companies, were 108,100. They shall set out third on the march.
25 “On the north side shall be the standard of the camp of Dan by their companies, the chief of the people of Dan being Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai, 26 his company as listed being 62,700. 27 And those to camp next to him shall be the tribe of Asher, the chief of the people of Asher being Pagiel the son of Ochran,28 his company as listed being 41,500. 29 Then the tribe of Naphtali, the chief of the people of Naphtali being Ahira the son of Enan, 30 his company as listed being 53,400. 31 All those listed of the camp of Dan were 157,600. They shall set out last, standard by standard.”
32 These are the people of Israel as listed by their fathers' houses. All those listed in the camps by their companies were 603,550. 33 But the Levites were not listed among the people of Israel, as the Lord commanded Moses.
34 Thus did the people of Israel. According to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so they camped by their standards, and so they set out, each one in his clan, according to his fathers' house."
Numbers 2:1-34
This chapter delineates the organisation of the camp of the Israelites and the order of their forward march. The purpose of God in having numbered the people and arranged them in this way has been variously assessed, in military, or in purely utilitarian, or in religious terms. It is clear that the mode of Israel's advancement on their journey to the Promised Land was laid down by God: this is how they were to journey, and this was the order of the pilgrimage. But it is just as clear that they were drawn up in battle array, because they were to be God's instruments of judgment against the heathen nations of Canaan, who had filled up their cup of wrath to the brim, having lived lives of such degradation that they were fit for nothing but judgment. This is the real meaning of the wars of Israel in the Promised Land: they were wars of judgment, and Israel was the rod of His anger against the wickedness of the Canaanite civilisation just as, centuries later, God raised up the Assyrian and Babylonian powers to be the instruments of His chastisement against His own sinning people.
This double emphasis upon pilgrimage and warfare is borne out by the interesting reference in 4:23 to the sons of Gershon of the tribe of the Levites, where the phrase 'to perform the service' translated literally reads 'to war the warfare'. There is a real sense in which even the Levites, who were set apart for the service of the sanctuary, were involved in a holy war- fare; and this is one of the reasons why this particular arrangement of the tribes can be spoken of both in military and in religious terms, and why by analogy we may speak of the Christian life as both a pilgrimage to the Promised Land and a warfare for the kingdom of God. Both are true, and both are foreshadowed in this chapter.