Week 7 Numbers 10
This chapter gives travelling instructions to the tribes. When they break camp Judah-Issachar-Zebulun are to leave first followed by Reuben-Simeon-Gad then Ephraim-Manasseh-Benjamin and finally Dan-Asher-Naphtali.
All the equipment & gear & furnishings of the Tabernacle have to be moved too and allowance is made for that – Gershon & Merari were responsible for transporting the structural & framing pieces of the Tabernacle…the Kohath family had the more delicate operation of moving the actual furnishings (which were treated with kid-gloves).
That meant when the priests were added-in the order of departure was Judah-Issachar-Zebulun & Gershon-Merari & Reuben-Simeon-Gad & Kohath & Ephraim-Manasseh-Benjamin & Dan-Asher-Naphtali.
I remember that travelling directions were given in Numbers 2 as well so I flip back to compare. The Judah-Issachar-Zebulun Reuben-Simeon-Gad Ephraim-Manasseh-Benjamin and Dan-Asher-Naphtali groupings are exactly the same. But in chapter 2 Gershon Merari & Kohath aren’t even mentioned. They’re named as a unit – the Levites – and positioned right in the middle of the pack: Judah-Issachar-Zebulun Reuben-Simeon-Gad THE LEVITES Ephraim-Manasseh-Benjamin & Dan-Asher-Naphtali.
Personally I wish there was just one list. Or else I wish the two lists were at least identical since now I’m stuck wondering about the discrepancy.
I guess chapter 2 could be considered a Rough Guide tipping off the twelve tribes about the basic sequence and with the Levites added in the centre. Chapter 10 then fine-tunes the instructions more precisely.
The difference doesn’t seem like a flat-out contradiction to me. But it’s a discrepancy I wish wasn’t there.