It can be said in general that after the ark went the rest of the priests, the Levites, and the Egyptians who had gone out from Egypt with the Israelites (as was said, Exodus 12:38). For neither — as was already set out in the previous question — was it commanded or predetermined who ought to be in the last column, but it was placed in each one’s choice. And who would doubt that from every rank, sex, and age of men very many flowed together? For a new thing was being done, unheard-of, and never seen since the founding of the world. To see it with one’s own eyes, to be present at it in person — who [was] so stupid, or so removed from the human desire of knowing, as would not have wished [it]? The wondrous power of God, the wondrous manner of destroying the enemy and the enemy’s cities, was to be displayed; deservedly the honor of God invited everyone to watch, and to go around the hostile walls — and [so did] each one’s own advantage and pleasure. God’s honor, indeed, in that his work is beheld openly, and he himself, both now and hereafter, should ever be praised by the remembrance of so great a marvel. One’s own advantage, in that the mind was inflamed to the love and praise of God, and, at the very entrance upon the wars against the Canaanites, was strengthened against all dangers and fears. And pleasure, indeed, most sweet, was born from the knowledge of so admirable a thing and from a most delightful spectacle — which the frequent conversation among fellow-tribesmen and friends, before children and household, would nourish and wondrously increase, and the handing-down [of it] to posterity itself.
But specifically there is, first, some difficulty about the priests, from the 70, who say: καὶ οἱ ἱερεῖς οἱ οὐραγοῦντες ὀπίσω τῆς κιβωτοῦ τῆς διαθήκης κυρίου σαλπίζοντες [“and the priests bringing up the rear behind the ark of the covenant of the Lord, sounding [the trumpets]”]. That the sense of which words might be grasped, one must know that οὐραγεῖν means either ὑστερίζειν [hysterizein, “to be in the rear”], as Hesychius explains — that is, “to be in the last [ranks]” — or τὴν οὐρὰν ἄγειν [tēn ouran agein, “to lead the tail”], as Eustathius and Suidas [say] from Xenophon, that is, “to bring up the last column.” Whence he who so leads [it] is called οὐραγός [ouragos]: in Latin, by Lipsius (book 4, On the [Roman] Militia, ch. 10), Vragus; [and] (book 5, ch. 9) Tergiductor [rear-leader]. In the former way, it would be signified by the 70 that certain priests went in the last column behind the ark, and sounded the trumpets — which is now a confirmation of what I said at the beginning:
(col. 753)
…that [matter] of the trumpets will have its own question later. In the latter way [taking the priests as rear-guard] a double sense can be made. One, indeed: that the seven priests who went before the ark were themselves, as it were, the leaders of the rear column, before which their seven horns went sounding. And this sense would be easiest, without any question about the trumpets; but it would have to be understood as if it were τοὺς ὀπίσω [tous opisō, “those behind”], or as elsewhere sometimes happens — that from the verb itself a substantive be drawn out, which is as it were included in it — as οὐραγοῦντες [τὴν] οὐραγίαν τὴν ὀπίσω [“rear-guarding the rear-part which is behind”] etc.; that is, “leading those who [are] behind the ark,” or “leading the last tail or column,” which was at the rear of the ark. The other [sense]: that the priests indeed were in the last part of those going round, but in such a way that in it they were the leaders of all the others whom that same part contained. And this sense seems quite consonant with the words, and therefore to be preferred to the rest; but that difficulty returns — indicated a little before, and to be explained a little later — about their trumpet-sounding. Perhaps also a distinction could be placed after “priests,” thus: “and the priests” — namely, they went before the ark; afterward: οἱ οὐραγοῦντες [those bringing up the rear], i.e. the Israelites who were in the last column, were the ones sounding the trumpets. Secondly: that the Levites accompanied close behind these priests, at their back, is not difficultly understood from this — that, since they were not in the first column, and in the pitching of the camp the priests were always in the middle, between them [the Levites] and the ark, they now followed the ark only with priests interposed. Thirdly: after these followed the Israelites, whether elder or younger; then whatever there was of women, whether older or younger. Fourthly: I do not think the Egyptians had a proper and separate place from all the tribes, but that, by a certain fixed arrangement, they had long since been joined to them by Moses, and, as regards marches, military duties, and tents, were mingled [with them]; and so their boys, girls, and wives too were mixed in with the boys, girls, and wives of the Israelites.