Numbers 10:6

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.

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 But if only one trumpet is blown, then only the leaders—the heads of the clans of Israel—must present themselves to you.

5 “When you sound the signal to move on, the tribes camped on the east side of the Tabernacle must break camp and move forward.

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.