Numbers 10:6

6 When you sound short blasts a second time, the camps pitched on the south^[a] are to set out. Short blasts are to be sounded for them to set out.

Numbers 10:6 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 10:6

When ye blow an alarm the second time
Another "tara-tan-tara":

then the camps that lie on the south side shall take their journey;
the camps of Reuben, Simeon, and Gad, which were encamped on the south side of the tabernacle, ( Numbers 2:10 Numbers 2:12 Numbers 2:14 ) ; and, as Josephus ^F11 says, at the third sounding of the alarm, that part of the camp which lay to the west moved, which were the camps of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin, ( Numbers 2:18 Numbers 2:20 Numbers 2:22 ) ; and at the fourth sounding, as he says, those which were at the north, the camps of Dan, Asher, and Naphtali, ( Numbers 2:25 Numbers 2:27 Numbers 2:29 ) ; which, though not expressed in the Hebrew text, are added in the Septuagint version, as they are to be understood:

they shall blow an alarm for their journeys;
for the journeys of the said camps, as a signal or token when they should begin to march.

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FOOTNOTES:

F11 Ut supra. (Antiq. l. 3. c. 12. sect. 6.)

Numbers 10:6 In-Context

4 However, if one is sounded, only the leaders, the heads of Israel's clans, are to gather before you.

5 "When you sound short blasts, the camps pitched on the east are to set out.

6 When you sound short blasts a second time, the camps pitched on the south are to set out. Short blasts are to be sounded for them to set out.

7 When calling the assembly together, you are to sound long blasts, not short ones.

8 The sons of Aaron, the priests, are to sound the trumpets. Your use of these is a permanent statute throughout your generations.

Footnotes

• [a]. Nm 2:10-16; 10:18-20