Numbers 2:3
וְהַחֹנִים קֵדְמָה מִזְרָחָה דֶּגֶל מַחֲנֵה יְהוּדָה לְצִבְאֹתָם וְנָשִׂיא לִבְנֵי יְהוּדָה נַחְשׁוֹן בֶּן־עַמִּינָדָֽב׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְהַחֹנִים֙ קֵ֣דְמָה מִזְרָ֔חָה דֶּ֛גֶל מַחֲנֵ֥ה יְהוּדָ֖ה לְצִבְאֹתָ֑ם וְנָשִׂיא֙ לִבְנֵ֣י יְהוּדָ֔ה נַחְשׁ֖וֹן בֶּן־עַמִּינָדָֽב׃
Καὶ οἱ παρεμβαλόντες κατὰ νότον κατ’ ἀνατολὰς τάγμα παρεμβολῆς Ἰούδα σὺν δυνάμει αὐτῶν, καὶ ὁ ἄρχων τῶν υἱῶν Ἰούδα Ναασσὼν υἱὸς Ἀμειναδάβ·
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Ad orientem Judas figet tentoria per turmas exercitus sui: eritque princeps filiorum ejus Nahasson filius Aminadab.
“Los que acampen en el lado este, hacia la salida del sol, serán los de la bandera del campamento de Judá, según sus divisiones. El líder de los hijos de Judá será Naasón, hijo de Aminadab.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Estos acamparán al levante, al oriente: la bandera del ejército de Judá, por sus escuadrones; y el jefe de los hijos de Judá, Naasón hijo de Aminadab:
On the east side, toward the sunrise, the divisions of Judah are to camp under their standard: The leader of the descendants of Judah is Nahshon son of Amminadab,
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse identifies the tribe camping on the eastern side of the Israelite camp: the divisions grouped under the degel ("standard") of the camp of Judah, with Nahshon son of Amminadab named as their nasi ("leader").
Key words
- cho.Nim ("[who] encamp", H2583) — qal participle, masculine plural, describing an ongoing/characteristic action: "those who encamp," naming a group by what they habitually do.
- Ke.de.ma ("east", H6924B) — noun with directional he (H9011) suffixed, meaning "toward the east"; paired redundantly with the next word.
- miz.Ra.cha ("east", H4217H) — a second directional term, also with the he ending, reinforcing "eastward" — the doubling intensifies or specifies the direction.
- De.gel ("standard of", H1714) — construct noun, grammatically bound to machaneh ("camp of," H4264), forming a chain "standard of the camp of Judah."
- na.Si' ("leader", H5387A) — absolute noun, introduced by ve- ("and"), shifting from spatial arrangement to personal leadership.
What the text says
The verse opens with a construct chain built around the participle cho.Nim ("those who encamp"), which functions almost as a title for the group being described, rather than a simple past-tense statement. This participle is followed by two directional terms, Ke.de.ma and miz.Ra.cha, both carrying the directional he ending. The stacking of two words for "east" is a feature of the Hebrew that emphasizes or specifies location — literally something like "eastward, sunrise-ward" — a nuance that most translations flatten into a single word "east."
The next clause introduces a construct chain: De.gel ("standard of") + machaneh ("camp of") + Yehudah ("Judah") + le-tziv'otam ("according to their military groups"), meaning the standard belongs to the camp of Judah, and this camp is organized according to its military divisions (the suffix -am, "their," on tziv'ot refers back to the collective group). The second half of the verse changes focus from spatial/organizational description to naming a specific person: ve-nasi ("and [the] leader") introduces Nahshon, identified through his patronymic construct ben-Amminadav ("son of Amminadab").
Differences between versions
The LXX (Swete) renders the directional phrase as κατὰ νότον ("toward the south"), where the Hebrew Ke.de.ma miz.Ra.cha specifies "eastward, sunrise-ward." The Vulgate follows the Hebrew sense with "ad orientem" ("toward the east"), agreeing with the Hebrew text rather than the LXX's "south."
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.