Standard

A standard or banner (Hebrew: degel for tribal standards; nes for signal poles or national banners) served in the ancient world as a rallying point for troops, a means of military identification, and a signal visible from a great distance. Numbers 1:52 and 2:2 regulate the arrangement of Israel's tribal camps around the tabernacle "each by his own standard, with the banners of their fathers' houses" — the twelve tribes organized into four groups of three, each with a distinctive ensign under which they camped and marched in the wilderness. The standard thus organized the covenant community around the central sanctuary, reflecting the theological ordering of Israel's life around God's dwelling.

The prophetic use of the standard is among the most theologically significant. Isaiah repeatedly speaks of the LORD raising a "signal" (nes) for the nations: "He will raise a signal for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth" (Isaiah 11:12). Isaiah 49:22 and 62:10 develop the same image of a banner lifted to draw the nations into the eschatological ingathering. Psalm 20:5 uses the raising of banners as an image of covenant victory: "May we shout for joy over your salvation, and in the name of our God set up our banners." Song of Solomon 6:4 and 6:10 — "awesome as an army with banners" — use the military standard's impressiveness as a simile for the beauty of the beloved. In Christian interpretation the cross has been widely understood as the ultimate fulfillment of Isaiah's "signal" raised for all nations.