Commentary for Numbers 10:14

AND OVER HIS HOST WAS NACHSHON THE SON OF AMMINADAB. I do not know why He mentioned here the names of the princes of the standards, since He has already mentioned them.¹²¹Above, 2:3, 10, 18, 25. And if you answer that this was to hint that [on the twentieth of Iyar when they set out on the first journey from the wilderness] these princes were alive — this has already been alluded to in the section of the standards,¹²¹Above, 2:3, 10, 18, 25. since from the day of the census [on the first of Iyar] till the time of the journey [on the twentieth of that month] not one of all those who were counted died. Perhaps the verse comes to tell us that even when they travel on the way the prince is to go at the head of his host, who are to follow his command, and he is to dwell as a king in the army,¹²²Job 29:25. and they are not to travel as sheep which have no shepherd,¹²³Further, 27:17. nor are they to appoint someone else for this purpose, as they do in the case of the priest who was anointed for war purposes.¹²⁴See Deuteronomy 20:2-4.

ויסע דגל מחנה יהודה, “The flag of the camp of the tribe of Yehudah journeyed, etc.” Whereas the Torah writes the word נסע, when reporting the other camps as starting their respective journeys, in reporting that the camp of Yehudah began its journey the Torah wrote ויסע, using the inverted future mode. In terms of the respective numerical value of these two words, it results in Yehudah being shortchanged 40 as the word ויסע=146, whereas the word ונסע amounts to 186. This may be an allusion to the tradition that the bones of Yehudah were constantly in restless motion in their coffin throughout the 40 years that the Israelites wandered in the desert; a delayed retribution for his leading part in the sale of Joseph to the Ishmaelites.

V. 14. לצבאתם: in geordneten Heeresgruppen. Vermutlich waren auch innerhalb eines jeden Stammes die Familien zusammengruppiert, und bezieht sich hierauf diese bei allen Lagern wiederkehrende Bezeichnung. Es läge näher, sie auf die jeder Fahne zugeteilten drei צבאות von Stämmen zu beziehen, wenn es צבאותיו in bezug auf דגל oder מחנה hieße. Der Plural bezieht sich offenbar auf das vorangehende בני יהודה, und dürfte daher innerhalb der בני יהודה selbst mehrere צבאות voraussetzen lassen.

ועל צבאו, “and in charge of its army, etc.” Nachmanides writes that he did not know why the Torah at this stage mentions the princes in charge of each army group once more. If the Torah meant to tell us that all of these princes were still alive, we already know this from Numbers We have a tradition that from the day of the count reported in that chapter until the beginning of the journey of the Israelites from Mount Sinai not a single Israelite died. Perhaps what the Torah wanted to hint to us is that during the journey the respective prince always marched at the head of his army group and generally performed the functions incumbent upon him, issuing instructions to his tribe and ensuring that these instructions were carried out. Each tribal leader performed the function performed in later periods by the כהן משוח מלחמה, the priest anointed especially for duty during expansionary wars.