Num 9:15
Signs for Removing and Encamping. - On their way through the desert from the border of Egypt to Sinai, Jehovah Himself had undertaken to guide His people by a cloud, as the visible sign and vehicle of His gracious presence (Exo 13:21-22). This cloud had come down upon the dwelling when the tabernacle was erected, whilst the glory of the Lord filled the holy of holies (Exo 40:34-38). In Num 9:15 the historian refers to this fact, and then describes more fully what had been already briefly alluded to in Exo 40:36-37, namely, that when the cloud rose up from the dwelling of the tabernacle it was a sign for removing, and when it came down upon the dwelling, a sign for encamping. In Num 9:15, “on the day of the setting up of the dwelling,” Exo 40:34-35, is resumed; and in Num 9:15 the appearance of the cloud during the night, from evening till morning, is described in accordance with Exo 40:38. (On the fact itself, see the exposition of Exo 13:21-22). העדת לאהל משׁכּן, “the dwelling of the tent of witness” (ל used for the genitive to avoid a double construct state: Ewald, §292, a). In the place of ohel moëd, “tent of the meeting of Jehovah with His people,” we have here “tent of witness” (or “testimony”), i.e., of the tables with the decalogue which were laid up in the ark of the covenant (Exo 25:16), because the decalogue formed the basis of the covenant of Jehovah with Israel, and the pledge of the gracious presence of the Lord in the tabernacle. In the place of “dwellings of the tent of witness,” we have “dwelling of witness” (testimony) in Num 10:11, and “tent of witness” in Num 18:2; Num 17:8, to denote the whole dwelling, as divided into the holy place and the holy of holies, and not the holy of holies alone. This is unmistakeably evident from a comparison of the verse before us with Exo 40:34, according to which the cloud covered not merely one portion of the tabernacle, but the whole of the tent of meeting (ohel moëd). The rendering, “the cloud covered the dwelling at the tent of witness,” i.e., at that part of it in which the witness (or “testimony”) was kept, viz., the holy of holies, which Rosenmüller and Knobel adopt, cannot be sustained, inasmuch as ל has no such meaning, but simply conveys the idea of motion and passage into a place or condition (cf. Ewald, §217, d); and the dwelling or tabernacle was not first made into the tent of witness through the cloud which covered it.