Such was the ideal form of the encampment in the wilderness: a form reproduced in the square court with which the temple was eventually surrounded, and in the vision of the heavenly city as seen by Ezekiel Ezekiel 48:20, and by John (Revelation 21:16; compare Revelation 20:9). Thus the camp of God's earthly people was divinely ordered so as to set forth the completeness of His Church; and to illustrate by its whole arrangement, which was determined by the tabernacle in the center, both the dependance of all on God, and the access which all enjoyed to God.

But the Levites were not numbered among the children of Israel,.... At this time, not among the Israelites, but by themselves, they being a camp of themselves:
as the Lord commanded Moses; Numbers 1:48.