The Departure: Preparations for the journey from Sinai are almost complete. Chapter 10 concludes the first section of Numbers with final attention to the exact means of breaking camp and the departure.

10:1–7  This first part of the chapter deals with the human side of leading the journey. The signals of the silver trumpets complement the divine leadership of the tabernacle cloud. According to verse 2, the trumpets function both as a way to gather the community and as a signal to break camp. The whole community is to gather at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting when both trumpets are sounded. When only one trumpet is sounded, the heads of the clans of Israel are to gather.

When the trumpets are used as a signal to break camp, the tribes on the east of the tabernacle are to move out at the f…