Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa Mga Bilang 2:2

נצבים עליו STOOD BY, or OVER HIM — before him; only this is a more fitting expression to use of angels

Nachmanides understands the word אות או מופת as follows: אות is advance notice of an otherwise unexpected future event, the sort of thing Moses did when he announced the arrival and time of the plagues to Pharaoh beforehand. The Torah had referred to his staff as the instrument with which he would make these אותות occur. (Exodus 4,17) Isaiah 7,14 also uses the word אות to describes an event he had foretold. The word is derived from אתה, “i.e. to come, to arrive, to occur,” as in Deut. 33,2 ואתה מרבבות קודש, “He arrived with myriads of holy ones” (angels).
The word מופת on the other hand, describes a totally new phenomenon occurring on earth, such as when G’d said in Yoel 3,3 ונתתי מופתים בשמים ובארץ, “I will perform miracles in the sky and on earth.” The word מופת is an abbreviation of the word מופלאת, (compare Job 37,16). In Egypt G’d had performed both אותות ומופתים as we know from Deut. 4,34. אותות were the ones Moses had announced in advance, whereas מופתים took the victims by surprise and also defied the laws of nature.

Wherever you find “opposite” it means facing to the east. Rashi is not saying that נגד always means eastward, for it is written (Bamidbar 2:2), “They shall encamp around the Tent of Meeting, from a distance (מנגד) .” There it does not mean toward the east, [for they encamped on all sides]. Rather, Rashi means that wherever נגד refers to an opposite side, [it is toward the east]. This is because נגד conveys facing something, [i.e., they are “faceto-face.”] And east is called פנים , “face.” [See Iyov 23:8]. (Re”m)

ויצא בן אשה ישראלית AND THE SON OF THE ISRAELITISH WOMAN WENT OUT — Whence did he go out? Surely not from the camp, since Scripture states “and they strove in the camp”! Rabbi Levi said, “He went out from (by his blasphemous utterance he lost) his eternal life (עולמו; R. Levi evidently connects ויצא with the last word of v. 8; “the everlasting covenant, ברית עולם”). R. Berachya said, “He set forth (יצא) (started his argument) from the above section. He said sneeringly: “Every Sabbath he shall set it in order!? Surely it is the way of a king to eat fresh (lit., warm) bread every day; is it perhaps his way to eat bread nine days old (lit., cold bread of nine days)?! (The Hebrew word בתמיה “Say this in the intonation of a question” means nothing other than our question mark) (Midrash Tanchuma 38 23). A Baraitha states that ויצא means, he came out of the judicial court of Moses where he had been pronounced to be in the wrong in the following matter: although his father was an Egyptian he had gone to pitch his tent in the camp of the tribe of Dan to whom his mother belonged (cf. v. 11). They (the men of Dan) said to him, “What have you to do here" (lit., what is your character that gives you the right to come here?). He replied. “I am one of the children of the tribe of Dan”. Thereupon they said to him, “Scripture states: (Numbers 2:2) “Every man [of the children of Israel shall encamp] by his own standard, that bears the signs of their father’s house”! He thereupon went in to the judicial court of Moses to have the matter decided and came forth (יצא) declared to be in the wrong. He then stood up and blasphemed (Sifra, Emor, Section 14 1; Leviticus Rabbah 32 3).

וישאו אותו בניו AND HIS SONS BORE HIM — His sons and not his grandsons. For thus, indeed, he had commanded them: “My bier shall not be borne by an Egyptian, nor by one of your sons because they are children of Canaanite women, but you alone shall bear it He likewise assigned them their positions, namely, three on the east-side and an equal number on the other three sides of the bier. In the same order in which later on the camps marched through the wilderness bearing their several banners they were arranged here. But the 12 tribes that formed these four divisions did not include Levi or Joseph, for Jacob had said, “Levi shall not carry my bier because he is destined to carry the holy Ark; Joseph shall not carry it because he is a king, but Manasseh and Ephraim shall take their places”. And, it is to this that Scripture refers when it says, (Numbers 2:2) “every man [shall pitch] by his own banner according to the signs” — meaning according to the sign (i.e. indication of position) which their father individually gave them with regard to carrying his bier (Midrash Tanchuma, Bamidbar 12).