Numbers 1:52

52. By his own camp The order of encamping will be explained in the next chapter.

By his own standard דגל , degel, as being conspicuous. Standards and ensigns were requisite for preserving the order of the march and of the camp. The degel of the text were probably the large banners which marked the four grand divisions of the camp.

They were, according to the Rabbies, wrought with embroidery, and that of Judah displayed a lion, (Genesis 49:9;) Reuben, a man; Ephraim, a bull, (Deuteronomy 33:17;) and Dan, the picture of the cherubim or flying eagle. The same symbols are found in Revelation 4:7. That standards with similar devices were in use before this date is proved by the battle pictures on ancient Egyptian monuments of standards of an umbrella or fan-like form, made of ostrich feathers or shawls. To this tradition of the Rabbies may be opposed the hostility of the Jews in subsequent ages to standards with images, such as the Roman eagles. They made this the ground of their suit to Vitellius, that he would not cross their territory, but march another way. Nevertheless to a nation of freedmen, many of whom could not read, a pictured standard might be as necessary as pictured signs, like the boar’s head in the streets of London three centuries ago. The Targumists say that the tribal standards were distinguished by the colours of the precious stones in the breastplate of the high priest, and that the four great banners of the four grand divisions of the camp were tri-colours, each combining the colours of the three tribes over which it floated.