Numbers 2

New International Reader's Version

The Tribes Camp Around the Tent of Meeting

2 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron. He said, ²“The Israelites must camp around the tent of meeting. But they must not camp too close to it. All of them must camp under their flags and under the banners of their families.”

³The groups of the camp of Judah must be on the east side. They must set up camp toward the sunrise. They must camp under their flag. The leader of the tribe of Judah is Nahshon, the son of Amminadab. ⁴There are 74,600 men in Nahshon’s group.

⁵The tribe of Issachar will camp next to them. The leader of the tribe of Issachar is Nethanel, the son of Zuar. ⁶There are 54,400 men in Nethanel’s group.

⁷The tribe of Zebulun will be next. The leader of the tribe of Zebulun is Eliab, the son of Helon. ⁸There are 57,400 men in Eliab’s group.

⁹So a total of 186,400 men will be set apart for the camp of Judah. They will be arranged group by group. They will start out first.

¹⁰The groups of the camp of Reuben will be on the south side. They will be under their flag. The leader of the tribe of Reuben is Elizur, the son of Shedeur. ¹¹There are 46,500 men in Elizur’s group.

¹²The tribe of Simeon will camp next to them. The leader of the tribe of Simeon is Shelumiel, the son of Zurishaddai. ¹³There are 59,300 men in Shelumiel’s group.

¹⁴The tribe of Gad will be next. The leader of the tribe of Gad is Eliasaph, the son of Deuel. ¹⁵There are 45,650 men in Eliasaph’s group.

¹⁶So a total of 151,450 men will be set apart for the camp of Reuben. They will be arranged group by group. They will start out second.

¹⁷Then the camp of the Levites will start out. The tent of meeting will go with them. They will march in the middle of the other camps. They will start out in the same order as they do when they set up camp. Each one will be in their own place under their flag.

¹⁸The groups of the camp of Ephraim will be on the west side. They will be under their flag. The leader of the tribe of Ephraim is Elishama, the son of Ammihud. ¹⁹There are 40,500 men in Elishama’s group.

²⁰The tribe of Manasseh will be next to them. The leader of the tribe of Manasseh is Gamaliel, the son of Pedahzur. ²¹There are 32,200 men in Gamaliel’s group.

²²The tribe of Benjamin will be next. The leader of the tribe of Benjamin is Abidan, the son of Gideoni. ²³There are 35,400 men in Abidan’s group.

²⁴So a total of 108,100 men will be set apart for the camp of Ephraim. They will be arranged group by group. They will start out third.

²⁵The groups of the camp of Dan will be on the north side. They will be under their flag. The leader of the tribe of Dan is Ahiezer, the son of Ammishaddai. ²⁶There are 62,700 men in Ahiezer’s group.

²⁷The tribe of Asher will camp next to them. The leader of the tribe of Asher is Pagiel, the son of Okran. ²⁸There are 41,500 men in Pagiel’s group.

²⁹The tribe of Naphtali will be next. The leader of the tribe of Naphtali is Ahira, the son of Enan. ³⁰There are 53,400 men in Ahira’s group.

³¹So a total of 157,600 men will be set apart for the camp of Dan. They will start out last. They will march under their flags.

³²Those are the men of Israel. They were counted according to their families. The total number of all the men in the camps is 603,550, group by group. ³³But the Levites weren’t counted along with the other men of Israel. That’s what the Lord had commanded Moses.

³⁴So the Israelites did everything the Lord had commanded Moses. That’s the way they set up camp under their flags. And that’s the way they started out. Each of them marched out with their own tribe and family.