The detail is the character of the document. Trumpets are differentiated by function, trumpets of summons, of assembly, of the ambush, of pursuit, of withdrawal, of reassembly, and each carries its own inscription, given in the text. Standards are inscribed differently at every level of the formation, for the whole congregation, for a tribe, for ten thousand, a thousand, a hundred, fifty and ten, and the inscription changes again on advance, on engagement and on return.
Formations are drawn precisely: a line a thousand deep at a stated interval, shields of a stated height, spears and darts of stated length, the seven ranks of skirmishers who throw in sequence before the infantry closes. Cavalry are assigned to the flanks with their own ages and equipment.
The army is a congregation under arms. No boy, no woman, and no man with a permanent bodily blemish or a discharge may enter the camps, because holy angels are present with the host. Ages are fixed by role: the front-line fighters and the mounted troops fall within stated bands, older men take the camp and the lines of supply, and the officers and the priestly staff have their own ranges.
The priests and Levites command by signal. Priests sound the trumpets that move the ranks, recite the prayers and blessings before and after each engagement, and are explicitly forbidden to go among the slain, so that the men who direct the killing must not be defiled by it. Prayers and hymns of thanksgiving occupy several columns, including the great blessing at the close, and the text prescribes what is to be said as exactly as what is to be done.