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Bible Dictionaries
Camp
Morrish Bible Dictionary
or 'The Camp' was a common expression used of Israel in the wilderness: the tabernacle in the centre and the twelve tribes, each in its appointed place, arranged around it, composed the camp.
WEST
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| CAMP OF EPHRAIM, |
| 108,100. |
| MANASSEH , BENJAMIN, |
| 32,200 35,400 |
| EPHRAIM, |
| 40,500. |
| |
| GAD |¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯| NAPHTALI, |
| 45,650 | K GERSHONITES M | 53,400 |
| | O E | |
| | H |¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯| R | |
S | | A | COURT | A | | N
O | CAMP | T | OF THE | R | CAMP | O
U | OF REUBEN | H | TABER- | I | DAN, OF | R
T | REUBEN 46,500 | I | NACLE. | T | 62,700 DAN, | T
H | 151,450 | T | | E | 157,600 | H
| | E ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ S | |
| | S MOSES, AARON, | |
| SIMEON, | AND THE PRIESTS. | ASHER, |
| 59,300 | | 41,500 |
| ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ |
| JUDAH, |
| 74,600 |
| ISSACHAR, ZEBULUN, |
| 54,400 57,400 |
| CAMP OF JUDAH, |
| 186,400 |
| |
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EAST
Everything was ordered of God, and each tribe must pitch its tents in the places appointed for them. Numbers 2 . As we might have expected, Moses, Aaron, and the priests were nearest to the door of the Tabernacle, and the Levites surrounded the three other sides.
The order in which the tribes were to march was also specified. In Psalm 80:2 we read "Before Ephraim, and Benjamin, and Manasseh, stir upthy strength, and come and save us." This alludes to those three being the tribes which immediately followed the Ark, the symbol of God's presence. It will be seen that the tribes were grouped under four leaders, each beingcalled a camp. They moved in the order given in Numbers 10 .
JUDAH, with Issachar and Zebulun,
The GERSHONITES and the MERARITES with the Tabernacle,
REUBEN, with Simeon and Gad,
The KOHATHITES with the 'sanctuary,'
EPHRAIM, with Manasseh and Benjamin,
DAN, with Asher and Naphtali.
Certain defilements shut a person out of the camp until he was cleansed, and many things had to be carried outside as being unfit for the place in the midst of which God had His dwelling-place. When the camp itself had become defiled by the golden calf, Moses "took the tabernacle and pitched it without the camp . . . . and called it the tabernacle of the congregation." This was not really 'the tabernacle,' for it had not at that time been erected. The word used signifies 'the tent,' and it was doubtless a tent anticipatory of the tabernacle significantly pitched by Moses outside the camp, to show that God's dwelling could not be where there was an idol, for it is added, "Every one which sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp." Exodus 33:7 .
The bodies of the beasts whose blood was brought into the sanctuary by the high priests for sin were burned without the camp. Exodus 29:14; Leviticus 4:11,12; Hebrews 13:11 . With this is linked the fact that Jesus also 'suffered without the gate' (of Jerusalem, which then answered to the camp); on which is based the exhortation to Christians, "Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach." Hebrews 13:12,13 . The whole earthly religious system adapted to the natural man, as Judaism of old, answers now to 'the camp' which Christians are exhorted to leave. Such systems, Judaism and Christendom, stand in direct contrast to the heavenly and spiritual character of the church of God. The camp in Revelation 20:9 refers to the nation of Israel when again gathered into the land of Palestine. There is no 'camp' on earth for the church.
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Morrish, George. Entry for 'Camp'. Morrish Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/mbd/c/camp.html. 1897.
