Numbers 10:8-29

⁸The priests who are descended from Aaron are the ones who should blow the trumpets. That is a regulation that will never be changed.

⁹When you fight against enemies who attack you in your own land, tell the priests to blow the trumpets loudly. I, Yahweh, your God, will hear that, and I will rescue you from your enemies.

¹⁰Also tell the priests to blow the trumpets when the people are happy, and at the festivals each year, and at the times when they celebrate the new moon each month. Tell them to blow the trumpets when the people bring offerings that will be completely burned, and when they bring offerings to maintain fellowship with me. If they do that, it will help you to remember that I, Yahweh your God, will help you.”

¹¹On the twentieth day of May in the second year after the/we Israelis left Egypt, the cloud rose up from above the Sacred Tent.

¹²So we/the Israelis traveled from the Sinai Desert, and we/they continued traveling north until the cloud stopped in the Paran Desert.

¹³That was the first time we/they moved, obeying the instructions that Yahweh had given to Moses/me to tell them.

¹⁴The group that went first, carrying their flag/banner, was the group from the tribe of Judah. Nahshon, the son of Amminadab, was their leader.

¹⁵The group from the tribe of Issachar followed them. Nethanel, the son of Zuar, was their leader.

¹⁶The group from the tribe of Zebulun went next. Eliab, the son of Helon, was their leader.

¹⁷Then they dismantled the Sacred Tent, and the descendants of Gershon and Merari carried it, and they went next.

¹⁸The group from the tribe of Reuben went next, carrying their flag. Elizur, the son of Shedeur, was their leader.

¹⁹The group from the tribe of Simeon was next. Shelumiel, the son of Zurishaddai, was their leader.

²⁰The group from the tribe of Gad was next. Eliasaph, the son of Deuel, was their leader.

²¹The group descended from Kohath was next. They carried the sacred items from the Sacred Tent. The Sacred Tent itself was set up at the new location before they arrived there.

²²The group from the tribe of Ephraim was next, carrying their flag. Elishama, the son of Ammihud, was their leader.

²³The group from the tribe of Manasseh went next. Gamaliel, the son of Pedahzur, was their leader.

²⁴The group from the tribe of Benjamin, went next. Abidan, the son of Gideoni, was their leader.

²⁵The ones who went last were the group from the tribe of Dan, carrying their flag. Ahiezer, the son of Ammishaddai, was their leader.

²⁶The group from the tribe of Asher went next. Pagiel, the son of Ocran, was their leader.

²⁷The group from the tribe of Naphtali went last. Ahira, the son of Enan, was their leader.

²⁸That was the order in which the groups of Israeli tribes traveled.

²⁹One day Moses/I said to his/my brother-in-law Hobab, the son of Reuel from the Midian people-group, “We are on the way to the place that Yahweh promised to give to us. Come with us, and we will take good care of you, because Yahweh has promised to do good things for us Israeli people.”