Organization of the Camp

(Book of Numbers 2:1 - 2:34)
Jehovah gave the following instructions to Moses and Aaron: "When camp is set up, each family will pitch their tents beneath their family’s ancestral banners.  The encampment will be made on all sides of the Tabernacle, but at some distance from it.

"On the east side, facing the rising sun, will camp the following tribes under their ancestral banners:

Judah, led Nahshon, son of Amminadab, numbering 74,600 fighting men
Issachar, led by Nethanel, son of Zuar, numbering 54,400 fighting men
Zebulun, led by Eliab, son of Helon, numbering 57,400 fighting men

The total number of forces from Judah's side of the camp totals 186,400 fighting men.  These tribes will set out first when the Israelites break camp.

"On the south side will camp the following tribes under their ancestral banners:

Reuben, led by Elizur, son of Shedeur, numbering 46,500 fighting men
Simeon, led by Shelumiel, son of Zurishaddai, numbering 59,300 fighting men
Gad, led by Eliasaph, son Deuel [or Reuel], numbering 45,650 fighting men

The total number of forces from Reuben's side of the camp totals 151,450 fighting men. They will set out second.

"The Tabernacle and the camp of the Levites will have their places in the middle of the encampment.  They will set out in the same order in which they make camp, each in their assigned places under their banners.

"On the west side will camp the following tribes under their ancestral banners:

Ephraim, led by Elishama, son of Ammihud, numbering 40,500 fighting men
Manasseh, led by Gamaliel, son of Pedahzur, numbering 32,200 fighting men
Benjamin, led by Abidan, son of Gideoni, numbering 35,400 fighting men

The total number of forces from Ephraim's side of the camp totals 108,100 fighting men.  They will set out third.

"On the north side will camp the following tribes under their ancestral banners:

Dan, led by Ahiezer, son of Ammishaddai, numbering 62,700 fighting men
Asher, led by Pagiel, son of Okran, numbering 41,500 fighting men
Naphtali, led by Ahira, son of Enan, numbering 53,400 fighting men

The total number of forces from Dan's side of the camp totals 157,100 fighting men.  They will set out last whenever the Israelites break camp."

These, therefore, are the forces of the Israelites, counted according to their tribes.  The total number of fighting men equals 603,550 (excluding, as Jehovah ordered, the Levites, who were not enrolled for military service).  The Israelites complied with the instructions Jehovah gave to Moses: each family and tribe set up camp under their ancestral banners and, when marching, did so with their own family and tribe. 

Notes
1.  It is amazing the degree to which Jehovah (Creator-God of the universe?) takes an interest in the nuts-and-bolts details of Israelite affairs.  His insistence on micromanaging everything suggests little confidence in Moses' administrative abilities.

2.  A common characteristic of ancient and medieval chronicles is the presentation of superfluous details, those that really do not further the narrative or provide any significant insight.   Most such chronicles, the Bible included, are based on oral traditions, and so it seems unlikely that such details, especially numbers and names, would have been accurately recorded and passed down, yet they are always pointedly presented with assumed exactitude.  Perhaps the reason for this is that details always suggest accuracy, a confirmation of authenticity, authority and, in the case of the Bible, divine provenance.  Significant details, on the other hands, seem always omitted and ignored.  For instance, the readers were never informed in Exodus of the name of the Egyptian Pharaoh, which is the very first thing one would like to know, but we are given the exact details of the construction of the Tabernacle.  We have the exact number of people in each tribe of Israel, but we are not informed, for instance, of the unglamorous details of how the sanitation needs of such a vast population could possibly have been met.