Numbers 10:6-16

6 When you sound the signal a second time, the tribes camped on the south will follow. You must sound short blasts as the signal for moving on.

7 But when you call the people to an assembly, blow the trumpets with a different signal.

8 Only the priests, Aaron’s descendants, are allowed to blow the trumpets. This is a permanent law for you, to be observed from generation to generation.

9 “When you arrive in your own land and go to war against your enemies who attack you, sound the alarm with the trumpets. Then the LORD your God will remember you and rescue you from your enemies.

10 Blow the trumpets in times of gladness, too, sounding them at your annual festivals and at the beginning of each month. And blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and peace offerings. The trumpets will remind your God of his covenant with you. I am the LORD your God.”

11 In the second year after Israel’s departure from Egypt—on the twentieth day of the second month —the cloud lifted from the Tabernacle of the Covenant.

12 So the Israelites set out from the wilderness of Sinai and traveled on from place to place until the cloud stopped in the wilderness of Paran.

13 When the people set out for the first time, following the instructions the LORD had given through Moses,

14 Judah’s troops led the way. They marched behind their banner, and their leader was Nahshon son of Amminadab.

15 They were joined by the troops of the tribe of Issachar, led by Nethanel son of Zuar,

16 and the troops of the tribe of Zebulun, led by Eliab son of Helon.

Numbers 10:6-16 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 10

This chapter gives an account of the directions given for making two silver trumpets, and of the use of them, the ends and purposes for which they were to be made, Nu 10:1-10; and of the time of taking up of the cloud from the tabernacle, and of the removal of the camp of Israel from the wilderness of Sinai, and of the order of their march, Nu 10:11-28; when Moses most earnestly passed Hobab, his brother in law, to continue with him, Nu 10:29-32; and the chapter is closed with the prayer of Moses at the setting forward of the ark, and the resting of it, Nu 10:33-36.

Footnotes

• [a]. This day in the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar occurred in late April, May, or early June.
• [b]. Or Tabernacle of the Testimony.