Balaam saw that the tent openings of the Israelites do not face each other; rather each opening was behind the next one, so that no one would look in the house of his friend. (BT Bava Batra 60a)
I was looking at the encampment of the Israelite tribes around the tabernacle I wondered in which direction each of these tent entrances/openings would look out to.
Searching for a answer I came across a translation of Bamidbar 2:2 which read: "They shall camp facing the tent of meeting on every side" and another reading: "afar off, opposite to it shall they encamp" and at last a more literal rendering: "over-against round about the tent of meeting they encamp".
But when I looked at the translation from the Mechon Mamre site it only read: "a good way off shall they pitch round about the tent of meeting". While the sefaria website translated it as: "they shall camp arount the Tent of Meeting at a distance".
From all of these it was clear that these tribes with their tents were pitched around the tent, but does this verse indeed says the entrances were pitched toward the Tent of Meeting? Were they facing it from every side?
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