(Numb. 2:2:) “Each with his standard, under the banners [for their fathers' houses….]” This text is related (to Cant. 6:10), “Who is this woman that shines through like the dawn, as beautiful as the moon.” Holy and grand was Israel by her standards!<sup class="footnote-marker">51</sup><i class="footnote">Numb. R. 2:4.</i> So all the nations were looking at them, as they said in astonishment (ibid), “Who is this woman that shines through?” The nations said to them (in Cant. 7:1), “Return, return, O Shulammite (i.e., O Israel). Cling to us and come to us; then we will make you sultans, generals,<sup class="footnote-marker">52</sup><i class="footnote">Lat.: <i>duces</i>.</i> and commanders,”<sup class="footnote-marker">53</sup><i class="footnote">Gk.: <i>hegemones.</i></i> [as stated] (in ibid., cont.), “Return, return that we may look upon you.” Now “we may look (rt.: <i>hzh</i>)” can only [refer to giving] authority, for so Jethro said to Moses (in Exod. 18:21), “You shall also seek out (rt.: <i>hzh</i>) [able men].” Then Israel said to them (in Cant. 7:1, cont.), “What will you see (rt.: <i>hzh</i>) in the Shulammite?” And what grandeur are you giving to us? [It is] perhaps (ibid., cont.) “like a dance of the camps?”<sup class="footnote-marker">54</sup><i class="footnote"><i>MHNYM</i>. The voweling of the Masoretic text understands <i>MHNYM</i> as a dual, i.e., as TWO CAMPS; but the context here assumes more than two.</i> Can you possibly give us anything like the grandeur which the Lord our God gave us in the desert? [There he gave us] the standard of the camp of Judah, the standard of the camp of Reuben, the standard of the camp of Ephraim, the standard of the camp of Dan. Are you able to do so for us? (Cant. 7:1), “What will you see (rt.: <i>hzh</i>) in the Shulammite? It is perhaps (ibid., cont.) “like a dance (<i>meholat</i>) of the camps”; [in] that when we sin, He pardons (<i>mohel</i>) us and says to us (in Deut. 23:15 [14]), “and your camp shall be holy?” So also Balaam the wicked beheld them and his eyes popped out as he faced them, because he could not touch them; as stated (in Numb. 24:2), “Then Balaam raised his eyes and saw Israel dwelling tribe by tribe.” He began to say, “Who can touch these people, when each and every one dwells by his standard.”