Each forward movement and each rest of the ark was made to bear a sacramental character. The one betokened the going forth of God against His enemies; the other, His gathering of His own people to Himself: the one was the pledge of victory, the other the earnest of repose.
Numbers 10:36 may be translated: “Restore” (i. e. to the land which their fathers sojourned in), “O Lord, the ten thousands of the thousands of Israel.” (Compare Psalms 85:4, where the verb in the Hebrew is the same.)