Bilangan 10:3-7

10:3 When ¹  they blow ²  them both, all the community must come ³  to you to the entrance of the tent of meeting.

10:4 “But if they blow with one trumpet, then the leaders, the heads of the thousands of Israel, must come to you. ⁴  10:5 When you blow an alarm, ⁵  then the camps that are located ⁶  on the east side must begin to travel. ⁷  10:6 And when you blow an alarm the second time, then the camps that are located on the south side must begin to travel. ⁸  An alarm must be sounded ⁹  for their journeys. 10:7 But when you assemble the community, ¹⁰  you must blow, but you must not sound an alarm. ¹¹ 

[10:3]  ¹ tn The perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive is here subordinated as a temporal clause to the following similar verbal construction.

[10:3]  ² tn The verb תָקַע (taqa’) means “to strike, drive, blow a trumpet.”

[10:3]  ³ tn Heb “the assembly shall assemble themselves.”

[10:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “they shall assemble themselves.”

[10:5]  ⁵ tn The word for an alarm is תְּרוּעָה (tÿru’ah). The root verb of this word means “to give a blast on the trumpet.” It may also on occasion mean “give a shout” in battle (Josh 6:10). In this passage it must refer to the sound of the trumpet.

[10:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “the camps that are camping.”

[10:5]  ⁷ tn The perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive functions as the equivalent of the imperfect tense. Here the emphasis is on the start of the journey.

[10:6]  ⁸ tc The MT does not mention the departures of the northerly and westerly tribes. The Greek text completes the description by adding them, making a full schedule of the departure of the groups of tribes. The Greek is not likely to be original, however, since it carries all the signs of addition to complete the text, making a smooth, full reading. The MT is to be preferred; it apparently used two of the groups to give the idea.

[10:6]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew text has “they shall blow an alarm”; the sentence without a formal subject should be taken as a passive idea.

[10:7]  ¹⁰ tn There is no expressed subject in the initial temporal clause. It simply says, “and in the assembling the assembly.” But since the next verb is the second person of the verb, that may be taken as the intended subject here.

[10:7]  ¹¹ sn The signal for moving camp was apparently different in tone and may have been sharper notes or a different sequence. It was in some way distinguishable.