Numbers 9:15-23

Expanded Bible

The Cloud Above the Tent

¹⁵ On the day the ·Holy Tent [Tabernacle], the Tent of the ·Agreement [Testimony; Treaty; Covenant], was set up, a cloud covered it. From dusk until dawn the cloud above the ·Tent [Tabernacle] looked like fire [Ex. 40:34–38]. ¹⁶ The cloud stayed above the ·Tent [Tabernacle], and at night it looked like fire. ¹⁷ When the cloud moved from its place over the Tent, the ·Israelites [^Lsons/^Tchildren of Israel] moved, and wherever the cloud stopped, the ·Israelites [^Lsons/^Tchildren of Israel] camped. ¹⁸ So the ·Israelites [^Lsons/^Tchildren of Israel] moved at the Lord’s command, and they camped at his command. While the cloud stayed over the ·Tent [Tabernacle], they remained camped. ¹⁹ Sometimes the cloud stayed over the ·Tent [Tabernacle] for a long time, but the ·Israelites [^Lsons/^Tchildren of Israel] obeyed the Lord and did not move. ²⁰ Sometimes the cloud was over it only a few days. At the Lord’s command the people camped, and at his command they moved. ²¹ Sometimes the cloud stayed only from dusk until dawn; when the cloud lifted the next morning, the people moved. When the cloud lifted, day or night, the people moved. ²² The cloud might stay over the ·Tent [Tabernacle] for two days, a month, or a year. As long as it stayed, the people camped, but when it lifted, they moved. ²³ At the Lord’s command the people camped, and at his command they moved. They obeyed the Lord’s order that he commanded through Moses.