2:10 “On the south will be the divisions of the camp of Reuben under their standard. 6 The leader of the people of Reuben is Elizur son of Shedeur.
2:18 “On the west will be the divisions of the camp of Ephraim under their standard. The leader of the people of Ephraim is Elishama son of Amihud.
10:14 The standard 7 of the camp of the Judahites set out first according to their companies, and over his company was Nahshon son of Amminadab.
10:18 The standard of the camp of Reuben set out according to their companies; over his company was Elizur son of Shedeur.
1 tn Heb “a man by his own standard.”
2 tn The imperfect tense is to be taken in the nuance of instruction.
3 tn Heb “of/for the house of their fathers.”
4 tn The Hebrew expression מִנֶּגֶד (minneged) means “from before” or “opposite; facing” and “at some distance” or “away from the front of” (see BDB 617 s.v. נֶגֶד 2.c.a; DCH 5:603-4 s.v. 3.b).
5 sn The Israelites were camping as a military camp, each tribe with the standards and emblems of the family. The standard was the symbol fastened to the end of a pole and carried to battle. It served to rally the tribe to the battle. The Bible nowhere describes these, although the serpent emblem of Numbers 21:8-9 may give a clue. But they probably did not have shapes of animals in view of the prohibition in the Decalogue. The standards may have been smaller for the families than the ones for the tribes. See further K. A. Kitchen, “Some Egyptian Background to the Old Testament,” TynBul 5 (1960): 11; and T. W. Mann, Divine Presence and Guidance in Israelite Tradition, 169-73.
6 tn Here and throughout the line is literally “[under] the standard of the camp of Reuben…according to their divisions.”
7 sn The “standard” (דֶּגֶל, degel) was apparently some kind of a symbol put up on a pole to signify the tribal hosts. R. de Vaux thought it simply referred to a pole or a mast, but that would not distinguish tribes (Ancient Israel, 226-27).