The trumpet signals
10
And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 📚“Make for yourself two silver trumpets. Make them of hammered work. They will be for your use in calling the assembly, and in the setting out of the camps. 3 📚And when they blow them, the whole assembly shall gather together to you at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. 4 📚But if they blow just one trumpet, then the leaders who are heads of the thousands of Israel, shall gather together to you. 5 📚When you blow an alarm, then the camps that lie on the east side shall move forward. 6 📚When you blow an alarm the second time, then the camps that lie on the south side shall set out. They shall blow an alarm for their setting out. 7 📚But when the congregation is to be gathered together, you shall blow, but you shall not sound an alarm.8 📚“And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow the trumpets. And this shall be a permanent ordinance for you throughout your generations. 9 📚And if you go to war in your land against an enemy who oppresses you, then you shall blow an alarm with the trumpets; and you will be remembered in the presence of the LORD your God, and be saved from your enemies. 10 📚Also on your festive days, and on your solemn days, and at the beginning of your months, you shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings, so that they may be to you as a memorial in the presence of your God. I am the LORD your God”.
10:1-10 2 Chron 13:12; Jer 4:5; Joel 2:1, 15. Here trumpets were to be used in four different ways – for summoning the people, for the setting out of the people, as a call to war, and at feast days. Note at Lev 23:23-25.⚜
Israel leaves Sinai
11 📚And it came about on the twentieth day of the second month, in the second year, that the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle of the testimony. 12 📚And the children of Israel set out from the Sinai desert; and the cloud came to rest in the desert of Paran. 13 📚And for the first time they set out according to the command of the LORD through Moses.
10:11-13 This took place one month after the tabernacle was erected (Ex 40:17), more than a year after they left Egypt. They had been camped at Sinai about 11 months (Ex 19:1), receiving God’s laws and instructions. Now they set out on the journey to the land of Canaan. They move out in the exact order that God had previously given (vs 14-28).⚜
14 📚The standard of the camp of the children of Judah according to their armies moved first; and Nahshon the son of Amminadab was over its army. 15 📚And Nethaneel the son of Zuar was over the army of the tribe of the children of Issachar. 16 📚And Eliab the son of Helon was over the army of the tribe of the children of Zebulun. 17 📚Then the tabernacle was taken down, and the sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari set out, carrying the tabernacle.
18 📚And the standard of the camp of Reuben set out according to their armies. And Elizur the son of Shedeur was over its army. 19 📚And Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai was over the army of the tribe of the children of Simeon. 20 📚And Eliasaph the son of Deuel was over the army of the tribe of the children of Gad. 21 📚Then the Kohathites set out, carrying the holy things, and the others set up the tabernacle before they came.
22 📚Then the standard of the camp of the children of Ephraim set out according to their armies; and Elishama the son of Ammihud was over its army. 23 📚And Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur was over the army of the tribe of the children of Manasseh. 24 📚And Abidan the son of Gideoni was over the army of the tribe of the children of Benjamin.
25 📚Then the standard of the camp of the children of Dan set out, the last of all the camps throughout their hosts; and Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai was over its army. 26 📚And Pagiel the son of Ocran was over the army of the tribe of the children of Asher. 27 📚And Ahira the son of Enan was over the army of the tribe of the children of Naphtali. 28 📚This was the order of march of the children of Israel according to their armies, when they set out.
29 📚And Moses said to Hobab, the son of Raguel the Midianite, Moses’ father-in-law 📖, “We are travelling to the place of which the LORD said, ‘I will give it to you.’ Come with us, and we will do you 📖 good, for the LORD has spoken good concerning Israel 📖”.
30 📚And he said to him, “I will not go, but will go to my own land, and to my relatives”.
31 📚And he said, “Please don’t leave us, because you know where we are to camp in the desert, and you can be to us instead of eyes.
10:31 Since the pillar of cloud and fire guided them where God wanted them to go (Ex 13:21; 40:36-38; Neh 9:19; Ps 78:14), Hobab’s guidance was really unnecessary. Moses’ request may indicate a weakness in him. How often Christians, when they should get their guidance from God, seek it from human beings. Later we find Hobab’s descendants in Canaan (Jud 1:16; 4:11). So it seems clear that he accepted Moses’ invitation.⚜
32 📚And it will be, if you go with us, yes, it will be, that whatever good the LORD does to us, we will do the same to you”.
10:32 The people of God should always try to persuade others to enter with them into God’s blessings.⚜
33 📚And they went a three days’ journey from the mount 📖 of the LORD, and during the three days’ journey the ark 📖 of the covenant of the LORD went before them to seek out a resting place for them. 34 📚And the cloud of the LORD was over them by day, when they went out of the camp.
35 📚And it came about when the ark set out that Moses said,
“Rise up, LORD,
and let your enemies
be scattered,
and let those who hate you
flee before you”.
36 📚And when it rested, he said,
“Return, O LORD,
to the many thousands
of Israel”.