Text: Numbers 5:1-4
OT Text Referred to: Numbers 2:3
Subject: tribal camp arrangement and purity
Source: John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1763)
Reference Type: Echo
Connection Method(s): None
Significance: Numbers 2:3ff assigns each tribe its specific position in the camp formation, beginning with Judah on the east side. Numbers 5:1-4 mandates the expulsion of the ritually unclean from this ordered camp because God's presence dwells within it. The purity legislation logically follows the camp organization: having established the sacred spatial arrangement (ch. 2), the text immediately addresses what threatens it -- the presence of טָמֵא (tame', "impurity") within a space sanctified by God's dwelling. The theological foundation is explicit: "they must not defile their camp, where I dwell among them" (Num 5:3).