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Bible Dictionaries
Camp
Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary
or or ENCAMPMENT, of the Israelites. The whole body of the people, consisting of six hundred thousand fighting men, beside women and children, was disposed under four battalions, so placed as to enclose the tabernacle, in the form of a square, and each under one general standard. ( See ARMIES. ) There were forty-one encampments, from their first in the month of March, at Rameses, in the land of Goshen, in Egypt, and in the wilderness, until they reached the land of Canaan. They are thus enumerated in Numbers 33 :—
1 . Rameses
2. Succoth
3. Etham, on the edge of the wilderness
4. Pihahiroth
5. Marah
6. Elim
7. By the Red Sea
8. Wilderness of Sin
9. Dophkah
10 . Alush
11 . Rephidim
12 . Wilderness of Sinai
13 . Kibroth-hattaavah
14 . Hazeroth
15 . Rithmah
16 . Rimmon-parez
17 . Libnah
18 . Rissah
19 . Kehelatha
20 . Shapher
21 . Haradah
22 . Makheloth
23 . Tahath
24 . Tarah
25 . Mithcah
26 . Hashmonah
27 . Moseroth
28 . Bene-jaakan
29 . Hor-hagidgad
30 . Jotbathah
31 . Ebronah
32 . Ebion-gaber
33 . Kadesh
34 . Mount Hor
35 . Zalmonah
36 . Punon
37 . Oboth
38 . Ije-abarim
39 . Dibon-gad
40 . Almon-diblathaim
41 . Mountains of Abarim In the second year after their exodus from Egypt they were numbered; and upon an exact poll, the number of their males amounted to six hundred and three thousand, five hundred and fifty, from twenty years old and upward, Numbers 1:2 . This vast mass of people, encamped in beautiful order, must have presented a most impressive spectacle. That it failed not to produce effect upon the richly endowed and poetic mind of Balaam, appears from Numbers 24:2; "And Balaam lifted up his eyes and he saw Israel abiding in his tents according to their tribes; and the Spirit of God came upon him, and he took up his parable and said, How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel! As the valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the river side, as the trees of lign aloes which the Lord hath planted, and as cedar trees beside waters." Grandeur, order, beauty, and freshness, were the ideas at once suggested to the mind of this unfaithful prophet, and called forth his unwilling admiration. Perhaps we may consider this spectacle as a type of the order, beauty, and glory of the true "church in the wilderness," in those happy days when God "shall not behold iniquity in Jacob, nor perverseness in Israel;" when it shall be said, "The Lord his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them."
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Watson, Richard. Entry for 'Camp'. Richard Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/wtd/c/camp.html. 1831-2.
