Numbers 10:6

6 And ye shall sound a second alarm, and the camps pitched southward shall move; and ye shall sound a third alarm, and the camps pitched westward shall move forward; and ye shall sound a fourth alarm, and they that encamp toward the north shall move forward: they shall sound an alarm at their departure.

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 And if they shall sound with one, all the rulers even the princes of Israel shall come to thee.

5 And ye shall sound an alarm, and the camps pitched eastward shall begin to move.

6 And ye shall sound a second alarm, and the camps pitched southward shall move; and ye shall sound a third alarm, and the camps pitched westward shall move forward; and ye shall sound a fourth alarm, and they that encamp toward the north shall move forward: they shall sound an alarm at their departure.

7 And whenever ye shall gather the assembly, ye shall sound, but not an alarm.

8 And the priests the sons of Aaron shall sound with the trumpets; and it shall be a perpetual ordinance for you throughout your generations.