2:3 “Now those who will be camping 1 on the east, toward the sunrise, 2 are the divisions 3 of the camp of Judah under their standard. The leader of the people of Judah is 4 Nahshon son of Amminadab.
17:6 So Moses spoke to the Israelites, and each of their leaders gave him a staff, one for each leader, 10 according to their tribes 11 – twelve staffs; the staff of Aaron was among their staffs.
25:14 Now the name of the Israelite who was stabbed – the one who was stabbed with the Midianite woman – was Zimri son of Salu, a leader of a clan 12 of the Simeonites.
1 tn The sentence begins with a vav (ו) on a word that is not a finite verb, indicating a new section begins here. The verbal form is a participle with the article used substantivally, with the meaning “and/now those camping.” Many English versions employ a finite verb; cf. KJV “on the east side…shall they of the standard of the camp of Judah pitch.”
2 tc The two synonyms might seem to be tautological, but this is fairly common and therefore acceptable in Hebrew prose (cf. Exod 26:18; 38:13; etc.).
3 tn The sentence actually has “[those camping…are] the standard of the camp of Judah according to their divisions.”
4 tn Or “will be.”
5 tn The imperfect tense with the conjunction is here subordinated to the preceding imperative to form the purpose clause. It can thus be translated “send…to investigate.”
6 tn The participle here should be given a future interpretation, meaning “which I am about to give” or “which I am going to give.”
7 tn Heb “one man one man of the tribe of his fathers.”
8 tn Heb “receive from them a rod, a rod from the house of a father.”
9 tn Heb “from every leader of them according to their fathers’ house.”
10 tn Heb “a rod for one leader, a rod for one leader.”
11 tn Heb “the house of their fathers.”
12 tn Heb “a father’s house.” So also in v. 15.