CHAP. II. "If we make the ichnography, or even the scenography, of the camp on this plan, in following it we must first, in the centre, form a parallelogram of 100 cubits long and 50 broad for the court of the tabernacle with an empty space all round of 50 cubits broad. We must then place the camp of the Levites in the following order : To the west, the Gershonites, chap. iii. 22, 23. Length 250 cubits castrametation of the Israelites. surpassed every thing of the kind ever seen. I shall now mention what I am about to propose as the foun dation upon which I shall proceed. "In Exod. xviii. 21, Deut. i. 15, we find the advice given by Jethro to Moses respecting political government and military discipline: Thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.' [See the note on Exod. xviii. 21.] We may very well compare these tribunes, or rather these chiliarchs, to our colonels, the centu rions or hecatontarchs to commanders or captains, the quinquagenaries or pentecontarchs to lieutenants, and the decurions or decarchs to our sergeants. These chiefs, whether they were named magistrates or officers, were each drawn from his own particular tribe, so that it was not permitted to place over one tribe an officer taken from another. Whatever matter the decarchs could not decide upon or terminate, went to the pentecontarchs, and from thence by degrees to the hecatontarchs, to the chiliarchs, to Moses, and at length to GOD himself, the sovereign head of the army. If we divide the whole army (such as it was at its departure from Egypt) by the numbers already laid down, we shall find 600 chiliarchs, 6,000 hecatontarchs, 12,000 pentecontarchs, 60,000 decarchs, which in all make 78,600 officers. Josephus regulates the number of them still more exactly by saying that there were chiefs set over 10,000, 1,000, We find this regulation in 500, 50, 30, 20, and 10. Ant. Jud., b. iii., c. 4: Take a review of the army, and appoint chosen rulers over tens of thousands, and then over thousands, then divide them into five hundreds, and again into hundreds, and into fifties, and set rulers over each of them who may distinguish then into thirties, and keep them in order; and at last number them by twenties and by tens, and let there be one commander over each number, to be denominated from the number of those over whom they are rulers.' "We ought not to pass over in silence this division by tens, for twice 10 make 20, three times 10, 30, five times 10, 50, ten times 10, 100, ten times 50, 500, ten times 1,000, 10,000. It was in this manner, as is pretended, that Cangu, the first of the great Khams, (as he is called,) and after him Tamerlane, drew out an army, i. e., by 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000, mentioned in Alhazen, c. v. Probably these Tartars borrowed from the very Hebrews themselves this manner of laying out a camp. At all events it is "On the east we must place tents for Moses, Aaron, certain that nothing more ancient of the kind can be and his sons, chap. iii. 38. "At the place where the camp of the Levites ends, a space must be left of 2,000 square cubits, after which we must take the dimensions of the camp of the twelve tribes. "This plan is in the main well imagined, but it does not afford an ichnography of sufficient extent. To come more accurately to a proper understanding of this subject, I shall examine the rules that are now in use for encampments, and compare them afterward with what is laid down in the Holy Scriptures, in order that we may hereby form to ourselves an idea of the camp of God. the grandeur and perfection of which To found than that mentioned in the books of Moses. distinguish it from that of the Greeks and Romans we may with justice call it the Hebrew castrametation, or, if we judge it more proper, the Divine castrametation, and consequently the most perfect of all. For although Moses places the pentecontarchs in the middle, between the hecatontarchs and the decarchs, i. e., 50 between 100 and 10; and although Josephus afterward places 1,000 between 500 and 10,000, and 30 and 20 between 10 and 50, this does not at all derange the progression by tens, which is the foundation of arithmetic. These subaltern officers were equally useful aud necessary, as we now see that their Remarks on the NUMBERS. castrametation of the Israelites. number, far from creating confusion, helps to main- | eighth chiliad; 7. the chiliarchs or colonels of the setain order, and that the more there are of them the venth rank; 0. finally, the general of the whole army. better is order preserved. According to the modern Farther, by the same means the loss or misplacing method of carrying on war, the next in rank to the of their arms might be prevented. Again, the solgenerals of the army (who have the supreme com-diers might in a very short time be instructed and mand) are field marshals and brigadiers, who command 5,000 men. formed to the exercise of arms, each decad having its sergeant for its master; and the chariots or other carriages might easily be divided amongst several, 10 under the decurion, 100 under the hecatontarch; and by thus following the above method, every thing might "There are then between the chiliarchs or colonels and the hecatontarchs or captains, lieutenant-colonels; and between the hecatontarchs and the decarchs, lieutenant-captains; and these have under them lieuten-be kept in good order. ants and ensigns. "It is certain that this method of distributing an army by tens, and of encamping, which is very concise, has far greater advantages even with respect to expense than the very best plans of the Greeks, Romans, or any other ancient nation. On this subject we have the testimony of Simon Steven, Castrametat. c. 1, art. 1, and c. 4, art. 3, Oper. Math., p. 574 and 596, &c. According to this arrangement each soldier, or if more proper, each father of a family, being thus placed by ten and ten in a straight line one after the other, might very easily name themselves first, second, &c. Each troop in like manner might be distinguished by its ensigns, that of 100 might have them small, that of 1,000 larger, and that of 10,000 still larger. Every officer, from the lowest subaltern to the general officers of the camp, and even to the generalissimos themselves, had only an easy inspection of ten men each; the decarch had the inspection of 10 soldiers, the hecatontarch of 10 decarchs, and the chiliarch of 10 hecatontarchs. After the chiliarchs, which in no troop can amount to ten, there is the chief or head of each tribe. Each then exactly fulfilling the duty assigned him, we may suppose every thing to be in good order, even were the camp larger and more numerous. same may be said respecting the contentions that might arise among the soldiers, as well as every thing relative to the general duty of the officers, as to the labours they were to undertake, whether for striking their tents for works of fortification or for making entrenchments. This arrangement might be easily retained in the memory, or a general list be kept of the names of both officers and soldiers to distribute to them their pay, and to keep exact accounts. The "It was possible in one moment to know the number of those who were either wanting or were out of their ranks, and to avoid this disorder in future by obliging each man to attend to his duty and keep in his rank. If by chance it happened that any one man wished to desert or had escaped, it was easy to notice him and inflict on him the punishment he merited. The ensigns being distinguished by their marks, and. the company being known, it was easy to find any soldier whatever. "The armies themselves might have certain marks to distinguish them, and by that means they might at once ascertain the person in question; for example: 8. 2. 7. 3. might signify the eighth soldier or father of a family, of the second rank, of the seventh company, in the third chiliad; 7. 3. 5. the halberdier of the decurion or sergeant of the seventh line, in the third company, of the fifth chiliad or thousand; 5. 8. the hecatontarchs or captains of the fifth company, in the A PLAN OF THE WHOLE ISRAELITISH CAMP. "We shall finally, in one plate, represent the whole camp of the Israelites, in that order which appears the most proper. For this purpose we must extract the square roots of the preceding spaces, in order that we may be able to assign to each tribe square areas, or rectangular parallelograms. I therefore find for 3049 square cubits. 3443 Reuben Simeon The Gershonites 1224 The Merarites 1113 Judah 3862 Issachar 3298 Zebulun 3388 Gad 3019 "The tabernacle, which was 100 cubits long and 50 broad, I place in the centre of the camp, at the distance of 840 feet from the camp of the Levites, which is placed exactly in the same manner as described in the sacred writings. I find therefore that the whole space of the camp is 259,600,000 feet. Now, according to the manner we have just divided the camp for each tribe, the sum total being 125,210,000, it follows that the space between the tents contained 134,390,000. If, with Eisenschmid, we estimate the Roman mile at 766 French fathoms and two feet, (consequently 21,141,604 square feet to a Roman square mile,) the Israelitish camp will contain a little more than 12 such square miles." The reader will have the goodness to observe that the preceding observations, as well as the following plate or diagram, which was made by Scheuchzer on the exactest proportions, could not be accurately copied here without an engraved plate; and after all, the common reader could have profited no more by the plate than he can by the diagram. It is not even hoped that disquisitions of this kind can give any thing more than a general idea how the thing probably was; for to pretend to minute exactness, in such cases, would be absurd, The sacred text informs us that such and such tribes occupied the east, such the west, &c., &c.; but how they were arranged individually we cannot pretend absolutely to say. Scheuchzer's plan is such as we may suppose judgment and skill would lay down; but still it is very probable that The command of a large army in the British service 4. Colonels, lieutenant-colonels, and majors; 3 officers is thus divided : 1. The commander-in-chief. belonging to each regiment in the service, and are solely employed in the disciplining and commanding the men; these are mounted on horseback, and termed field-officers. 2. Lieutenant-generals, who command divisions of the. to each company. Ascending scale of ranks which every officer must pass through. Ensign, 4. Colonels in the army, or lieutenant-colonels, who to every regiment. of gradation of ranks, as in the event of the ab- | Major-general, brigade-commander. 619 lutely certain; as comprising a general view of what may be supposed probable, likely, and practicable. Though I particularly refer the reader to the above diagram of the Israelitish camp, taken from Scheuchzer's plate, which I have thought necessary to The whole may be said to consist of three camps, be subjoined to his description, yet I think it also proper viz., 1. The camp of the Lord; 2. The camp of the to introduce that on the following page, as it gives Levites; and, 3. The camp of the people. These a general and tolerably correct idea of this immense in the grand camp in the wilderness, corresponded camp, in the description of which the inspired writer with the holy of holies, the holy place, and the has been so very particular; but still I must say these outward court of the Temple at Jerusalem. things are to be considered as PROBABLE, not as abso- | Ainsworth, 620 See in the wilderness. The generations of Aaron and Moses, 1–4. The tribe of Levi to minister to the Lord under Aaron and his sons, 5-10. They are taken in the place of the first-born, 11–13. Moses is commanded to number them, 14-16. Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, the names of the three heads of families of the Levites, 17. Of Gershon and his family, 18-21. Their number, 7,500, ver. 22. Their place behind the tabernacle, westward, 23. Their chief, Eliasaph, 24. Their charge, 25, 26. Of Kohath and his family, 27. Their number, 8,600, ver. 28. Their place, beside the tabernacle, southward, 29. Their chief, Elizaphan, 30. Their charge, 31. The chief of the Levites, Eleazar, son of Aaron, 32. Of Merari and his family, 33, Their number, 6,200, ver. 34. Their chief, Zuriel, they shall pitch beside the tabernacle, northward, 35. Their charge, 35-37. Moses and AARON to encamp before the tabernacle, eastward, 38. The amount of all the males among the Levites from a month old and upwards, 22,000, ver. 39. Moses is commanded to number the first-born, 40; and to take the Levites and their cattle, instead of the first-born of man and beast among the Israelites, 41. Moses numbers the first-born, who amount to 22,273, ver. 43. As the first-born were 273 more than the Levites, Moses is commanded to take from the people five shekels apiece for them, 44-47, which is to be given to Aaron and his sons, 48. Moses does accordingly, and finds the amount of the money to be 1,365 shekels, 49, 50, which is given to Aaron and his sons, 51. THESE also are the genera- spake with Moses in Mount A. M. 2514. B. C. An. Exod. Isr. 2. tions of Aaron and Moses in the day that the LORD NOTES ON CHAP. III. Sinai. 2 And these are the names of A. M. 2514. hence some have thought that the word Moses was not originally in the text. Others think that the words veelleh toledoth, these are the generations, Verse 1. The generations of Aaron and Moses] Though Aaron and Moses are both mentioned here, yet the family of Aaron alone appears in the list; should be rendered these are the acts, or transactions, |