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Numbers 2 Bible study: Around the tent
Judah, not Reuben the firstborn, camps toward the sunrise and sets out first (2:3, 2:9). The Tent of Meeting travels in the middle of the camps (2:17), in the camp where the LORD says "I dwell" (Numbers 5:3). And the text gives four sides and an order, not a shape.
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“The children of Israel shall encamp every man by his own standard, with the banners of their fathers’ houses. They shall encamp around the Tent of Meeting at a distance from it.”
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“In Numbers 2, the camp of Judah sets out first, before the camp of Reuben.”
Is that in Numbers 2, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
Four sides, three tribes each
The LORD spoke "to Moses and to Aaron" (2:1): "The children of Israel shall encamp every man by his own standard, with the banners of their fathers’ houses. They shall encamp around the Tent of Meeting at a distance from it" (2:2). Then he names each side. On the east, Judah, with Issachar and Zebulun (2:3-8). On the south, Reuben, with Simeon and Gad (2:10-15). On the west, Ephraim, with Manasseh and Benjamin (2:18-23). On the north, Dan, with Asher and Naphtali (2:25-30). Each side is named for the tribe that leads it: "the standard of the camp of Judah" (2:3), "the standard of the camp of Reuben" (2:10), "the standard of the camp of Ephraim" (2:18) and "the standard of the camp of Dan" (2:25). And the Tent of Meeting goes "with the camp of the Levites in the middle of the camps" (2:17).
Where it leads to Jesus
There I am in the middle of them
Numbers 2:17leads toMatthew 18:20
The Tent of Meeting goes "with the camp of the Levites in the middle of the camps" (2:17), and the LORD calls Israel's camp "their camp, in the midst of which I dwell" (Numbers 5:3). Jesus, speaking to his disciples (Matthew 18:1) about a brother who sins and about "the assembly" (Matthew 18:15-17), said, "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the middle of them" (Matthew 18:20). Jesus doesn't mention the camp or the tabernacle, and the New Testament doesn't link his words to Numbers 2. What the two share is their subject, the LORD present in the middle of his gathered people, not only the word "middle". These are Jesus' own words set beside this chapter, not a fulfillment of it.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about Numbers 2
That was a taste
The rest of Numbers 2 is waiting in Favor
- Judah toward the sunrise, and first to set out
- The camp moves the way it camps
- The same men, arranged
- The order, carried out
- Who camps beside whom
- Whose tent is in the middle
- 14 questions as you read
- 9 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
Favor reads the Bible in order, so you'll reach Numbers 2 with everything before it in view. First week free, then $10 a month per person.
The Hebrew word behind it
דֶּגֶלdegelsay DEH-gel
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "standard, banner". It is this chapter's key word, used 8 times. Every man camps "by his own standard" (2:2), and each side of the camp is "the standard of the camp" of the tribe that leads it (2:3, 2:10, 2:18, 2:25). The chapter ends with the people doing it: "so they encamped by their standards, and so they set out" (2:34). The word is used 14 times in the Hebrew Bible, 13 of them in Numbers; the only other is "His banner over me is love" (Song of Songs 2:4). The text never says what the standards looked like.
For your group
Numbers 2 Bible study questions
- 1Every tribe camped around the Tent of Meeting, with the LORD's dwelling in the middle (2:2, 2:17; Numbers 5:3). What would it look like for God to be at the centre of your week, not at its edge?
- 2"every man in his place, by their standards" (2:17). Where is your place among the people around you right now, and how do you feel about it?
- 3Judah's camp went first (2:9), and Dan's went last (2:31), "the rear guard of all the camps" (Numbers 10:25). Who keeps the back in your group or church, often unnoticed, and how could you thank them?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Numbers 2 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Questions
What is Favor?
Favor is a Bible study app that explains every chapter as you read: the Hebrew and Greek behind the words, the details most readers miss, and how each part of the Bible leads to Jesus. Read on your own, or start a Bible study with friends, family or your church.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home