ENCAMPMENT (an-kfimp'ment).
(1) The following renderings are given in the O. T. (Heb. ri;q', makh-an-eh', from khaw navf, to sit down, to fiitch tent): A term applied to any band or company presenting a regular and settled appearance; a standing camp; a predatory or nomad party at rest (Gen. xxxii:21); an army or caravan when on its march (Exod. xiv:o; Josh. x:5; xi:4; Gen. xxxii:7, 8), and the resting-place of an army or company (Exod. xvi:13). Sometimes the verb refers to the casual arrangement of a siege (l's. xxvii:3) or campaign (t Sam, iv:1), (Barnes' Bib. Diet.; Mc. & Str. Cyc.) (2) Of the Jewish system of encampment the Mosaic books have left a detailed description. From the period of the sojourn in• wilderness to the crossing of the Jordan t twelve tribes were formed into four great artni , encaniping in as many fronts, or forming a square, with a great space in the rear, where the tabernacle of the Lord was placed, surrounded by the tribe of Levi and the bodies of carriers, etc., by the stalls of the cattle and the baggage : the four fronts faced the cardinal points while the march was eastward, but as Judah continued to lead the van, it follows that when the Jordan was to he crossed the direc tion became westward, and therefore the general arrangement, so far as the cardinal points were concerned, was reversed, unless Judah and his two wings formed the rear in crossing the Jordan. It
does not appear that, during this time. Israel ever had lines of defense thrown up: but in after ages, when only single armies came into the field, it is probable that the castral disposition was not invariably quadrangular; and, from the many po sitinns indicated on the crests of steep mountains. the fronts were clearly adapted to the ground and to the space which it was necessary to occupy The rear of such positions, or the square camps in the plain, appear from the marginal reading of t Sam. xvii•2n. and xxvi :5 to have been enclosed with a line of carts or chariots, which from the remotest period was a practice among all die nomade nations of the north. C. H. S.