Numbers 2:5, commentary and pictures

The verse places Issachar in its appointed place next to Judah, the tribe named immediately before it, and names Nethaneel son of Zuar as captain of the children of Issachar, with each tribe in its assigned place under its own standard. The placement of Issachar next to Judah shows that God prescribed where each tribe was to camp rather than leaving the arrangement to individual choice. Every tribe was required to pitch under its own standard in the ordered camp.

The arrangement governed both camping and marching in perfect order in formation around the tabernacle and ark at a distance from it. Every tribe carried a standard bearing its distinguishing sign of its father's house and pitched and marched by and under it. When resting the tabernacle was erected first, then the tribes pitched their tents in order in just such a position as commanded, around the tabernacle at a distance from it, with the Levites placed in the midst with the ark. A special family of the tribe of Levi was designated to bear the sacred ark, and the holy tabernacle was not left to be borne indiscriminately by any tribe that chose. Moses and Aaron marched just in front and the sons of Aaron near them, each bearing a trumpet to signify directions by special understood sounds, and when traveling the ark of the covenant was borne before the tribes and when the ark moved the armies journeyed with the different tribes marching in order under their own standards. When it was for the good of the people and the glory of God to pitch in a certain place, He signified His will by causing the pillar of cloud to rest directly and low over the tabernacle until they should journey again, and when the cloud was lifted high above the tabernacle they journeyed.

This was part of the complete organization and thorough discipline and perfect organization and special order God gave Israel very soon after leaving Egypt and instituted in the days of Moses for the benefit of the children of Israel. In special providence God qualified Moses to stand at the head of the armies of Israel, having trained him as a mighty warrior to lead the armies of the Egyptians with unsurpassed generalship.

The arrangement was marked by order and harmony, prescribing where each tribe was to camp and giving each person a specified responsibility. It was intended to impress Israel and surrounding nations with God's majesty and holiness, to show the purity and orderly character He desires in those who serve Him, and to show that the Lord governed Israel.

The orderly arrangement is faithfully described together with the deliverance, murmuring, transgressions, rebellions, punishments, and carcasses strewn in the wilderness, and is held up as a warning lest those who come after follow their example of disobedience and fall like them. God has not changed from a God of order but is the same in the present dispensation as in the former, as particular now as then, and designs that lessons of order and organization be learned. The directions reflect God's order and reject confusion in His work, and provide a practical model for laying out a campground.