the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or (דֶּגֶל, degel, prop. the banner; while נִס, nes, was prop. the staff; but the terms are used somewhat indiscriminately). Standards and ensigns are to be regarded as efficient instruments for maintaining the ranks and files of bodies of troops; and in Numbers 2:2 they are particularly noticed, the Israelites being not only enjoined to encamp "each by the standard of his tribe and the ensign of his father's house," but, as the sense evidently implies, in orders or lines. It is clear, when this verse is considered in connection with the religious, military, and battle pictures on Egyptian monuments, that the Hebrews had ensigns of at least three kinds, namely, (1) the great standards of the tribes ( אוֹת of a single tribe, דֶּגֶל of three tribes together), serving as rallying signals for marching, forming in battle array, and for encamping; (2) the divisional standards (מַשְׁפָּחוֹת, mishpachoth) of clans; and (3) those of houses or families (בֵּית אָבוֹת, beth aboth), which after the occupation of the Promised Land may gradually have been applied more immediately to corps and companies, when the tribes, as such, no longer regularly took the field.
That there were several standards may be inferred from the uniform practice of the East to this day; from their being useful in maneuvers, as already explained, and as shown in the Egyptian paintings; and from being absolutely necessary; for had there been only one to each tribe, it would not have been sufficiently visible to crowds of people of all ages and both sexes, amounting in most cases to more than 100,000, exclusive of the encumbrance of their baggage. Whole bodies, therefore, each under the guidance of the particular clan ensign, knew how to follow the tribal standard; and the families offered the same convenience to the smaller divisions. It may be doubted whether these three were enough for the purpose; for if they were carried in the ranks of the armed bodies, it must have been difficult for the households to keep near them; and if they were with the crowd, the ranks must have had others to enable them to keep order, as we find that even in the Roman legions, thoroughly trained as they were, numerous vexilla were still held to be necessary. That there were others might be inferred (Isaiah 13:2; Jeremiah 51:27) from the circumstance of their being planted on the summit of some high place, to mark the point where troops were to assemble; these last, therefore, were not ensigns of particular bodies, but signals for an understood purpose, such as both the Greeks and Romans employed when the general gave notice of his intention to engage, by hoisting above his tent a red tunic, or when Agamemnon recalled his troops in order to rally them, by the signal of a purple veil.
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