“Camp” From Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:
[ENCAMPMENT.]
“Army” From Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:
Hebrew males twenty years old and upward subject to military duty (Num. 1:2-3). Tribes formed army divisions. Numerated by hundreds and thousands, each with captains (Num. 31:14). Kings had body-guards (1 Sam. 13:2; 25:13). Later, a standing army formed (2 Chron. 25:6). No cavalry till Solomon’s time. War declared and exempts used as (Deut. 20:1-14; 24:5). In N. T. Roman army composed of legions, with chief captains (Acts 21:31); tents of legions, or cohorts, and bands (Acts 10:1); maniples, or thirds of legions; centuries, 100 men each and two to a maniple. Captain of a 100 called a Centurion (Matt. 8:5; 27:54).
“Camp” From Concise Bible Dictionary:
Camp of the twelve tribes of Israel around the Tabernacle.
“The Camp” was a common expression used of Israel in the wilderness: the tabernacle in the center and the twelve tribes, each in its appointed place, arranged around it, composed the camp. Everything was ordered of God, and each tribe must pitch its tents in the places appointed for them (Num. 2). As we might have expected, Moses, Aaron, and the priests were nearest to the door of the Tabernacle, and the Levites surrounded the three other sides.
The order in which the tribes were to march was also specified. In Psalm 80:2 we read “Before Ephraim, and Benjamin, and Manasseh, stir up thy strength, and come and save us.” This alludes to those three being the tribes which immediately followed the Ark, the symbol of God’s presence. It will be seen that the tribes were grouped under four leaders, each being called a camp. They moved in the order given in Num. 10—
JUDAH, with Issachar and Zebulun,
The GERSHONITES and the MERARITES with the Tabernacle,
REUBEN, with Simeon and Gad,
The KOHATHITES with the “sanctuary,”
EPHRAIM, with Manasseh and Benjamin,
DAN, with Asher and Naphtali.
Certain defilements shut a person out of the camp until he was cleansed, and many things had to be carried outside as being unfit for the place in the midst of which God had His dwelling-place. When the camp itself had become defiled by the golden calf, Moses “took the tabernacle and pitched it without the camp.... and called it the tabernacle of the congregation.” This was not really “the tabernacle,” for it had not at that time been erected. The word used signifies “the tent,” and it was doubtless a tent anticipatory of the tabernacle significantly pitched by Moses outside the camp, to show that God’s dwelling could not be where there was an idol, for it is added, “Every one which sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp” (Ex. 33:7).
The bodies of the beasts whose blood was brought into the sanctuary by the high priests for sin were burned without the camp (Ex. 29:14; Lev. 4:11-12; Heb. 13:11). With this is linked the fact that Jesus also “suffered without the gate” (of Jerusalem, which then answered to the camp); on which is based the exhortation to Christians, “Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach” (Heb. 13:12-13). The whole earthly religious system adapted to the natural man, as Judaism of old, answers now to “the camp” which Christians are exhorted to leave. Such systems, Judaism and Christendom, stand in direct contrast to the heavenly and spiritual character of the church of God. The camp in Revelation 20:9 refers to the nation of Israel when again gathered into the land of Palestine. There is no “camp” on earth for the church.
“Tent” From Concise Bible Dictionary:
1. The word commonly translated “tent” is ohel, but it is often translated in the AV “tabernacle,” and is used also for “dwelling” or “habitation,” (Job 8:22; Psa. 91:10; &c). This word also shows that the goats’ hair curtains formed the “tent” of the tabernacle. See TABERNACLE. It was also a “tent” that Moses pitched outside the camp in Exodus 33:7. See CAMP.
2. mishkan, rightly translated “tabernacle,” but is “tent” in Song of Solomon 1:8.
3. sukkah, also translated “tabernacle,” “pavilion,” “booth;” and only once “tent” (2 Sam. 11:11).
4. qubbah, occurring only in Numbers 25:8. With the patriarchs their “tent” was their dwelling place as far as they had any, easily moved from place to place as the cattle needed fresh pasture. On Israel entering the land the tents gave way to houses in the cities: as the Christian’s “tabernacle” will give place to the “house” above (2 Cor. 5:1).
Encampment on Pisgah’s slopes, west over the Dead Sea (1900s).
“Army” From Concise Bible Dictionary:
It must be remembered that Israel were the hosts of Jehovah, keeping His charge and fighting His battles (Ex. 12:41; Josh. 5:14). It appears that all who reached the age of twenty years were contemplated as able to bear arms (Num. 1:3); and they marched and encamped in 4 divisions of 3 tribes each, with a captain over every tribe. The subdivisions were into thousands and hundreds (Num. 31:14), and into families (Josh. 7:17). There were also trumpet calls (Num. 10:9, compare 1 Cor. 14:8), and all the appearance of careful organization. Until the time of the kings this natural or tribal organization seems to have been usual, but in the time of Saul there was a body guard (1 Sam. 13:2), and a captain of the host (1 Sam. 17:55). In David’s days those heroes who were with him in the cave of Adullam formed the nucleus of his “mighty men” (2 Sam. 23:8-39). They were devoted to the service of God’s king. David afterward organized a monthly militia of 24,000 men under 12 captains (1 Chron. 27:1-15).
The general gradation of ranks was into privates; “men of war”; officers; Solomon’s “servants”; captains or “princes”; and others variously described as head captains, or knights or staff officers; with rulers of his chariots and his horsemen (1 Kings 9:22). It may be noticed that horses having been forbidden (Deut. 17:16), it was not until Solomon’s time that this was organized, though David had reserved horses for a hundred chariots from the spoil of the Syrians (2 Sam. 8:4). Solomon, trading with Egypt (1 Kings 10:28-29), enlarged their number until the force amounted to 1,400 chariots, and 12,000 horsemen (1 Kings 10:26; 2 Chron. 1:14). Every able man being a soldier gave David the immense army of 1,570,000 men that “drew sword” (1 Chron. 21:5). After the division, Judah under Abijah had an army of 400,000 “valiant men,” and Israel at the same time of 800,000 “chosen men.” Afterward Asa had 580,000 “mighty men of valor”; and Jehoshaphat, who had waxed great exceedingly, had as many as 1,160,000 men, besides those left in the fenced cities (2 Chron. 17:14-19).
In the New Testament a few references are made to the Roman army. A “Legion” was a body that contained within itself all the gradations of the army. It might be called under the empire, in round numbers, a force of not more than 6,000 men. Every legion at times contained 10 cohorts of 600 each; every cohort 3 maniples of 200; and every maniple 2 centuries of 100: hence the name of centurion or commander of 100 men, as found in Acts 10:1,22. Each legion was presided over by 6 chiefs, χιλίαρχος, each commanding 1,000 men, mostly translated “chief captain,” as in Acts 21:31-37; it is “high captain” in Mark 6:21; and “captain” in John 18:12 and Revelation 19:18. A cohort, σπεῖρα, is translated “band” in Acts 10:1; 21:31. A “quaternion” embraced 4 soldiers (Acts 12:4).
The head quarters of the Roman troops was at Cæsarea, with a cohort at Jerusalem; but at the time of the feast, when, alas, the mutinous disposition of the Jews was sure to appear, additional troops were present in the city but without their standards of the eagle, which were especially obnoxious to the Jews. Though the Romans were God’s rod to punish them, their stiff necks could not bow, nor receive the punishment as from Jehovah.
Strong’s Dictionary of Hebrew Words:
Transliteration:
machaneh
Meaning:
from 2583; an encampment (of travellers or troops); hence, an army, whether literal (of soldiers) or figurative (of dancers, angels, cattle, locusts, stars; or even the sacred courts)
KJV Usage:
army, band, battle, camp, company, drove, host, tents