TENT (אָהַל֮, H183; σκηνή, G5008). A temporary dwelling generally made of strong black cloth woven from goat’s hair. From remote antiquity it has been the typical abode of the Bedouin, the nomadic Arab of the Arabian, Syrian, and N African deserts. Tents are of various types, conical, oval, oblong. They are pitched by women stretching goats’ haircloth over poles with cords of goats’ hair or hemp fastened to stakes. The stakes are hardwood pegs driven into the ground with wooden mallets (Judg 4:21). Reinforcements with narrow strips of cloth are used under the poles and where cords are fastened. Side curtains are of goats’ haircloth or mats woven from reeds or rushes. These are also used for dividing walls when needed to separate families or animals from people (2 Chron 14:15). The back of the tent is closed; the front often open. A corner of the curtain where two ends meet is turned back to form the door (Gen 18:1). Tents are a protection from heat and cold, but hardly rain proof.
Normally, one pack animal, donkey or camel, can carry all the belongings of a nomadic family. Dining utensils consist of two tinned copper cooking vessels, a shallow tray of the same metal, a coffee set consisting of roasting pan, morter and pestle, and boiling pot and cups. Food is usually kept in bags of goat hair, and liquids—i.e., milk, oil, and wine—in skins. Poor people have little or no rugs on their dirt floors, but the wealthier cover their floors with mats of goats’ hair or straw, or woolen rugs (Judg 4:18).
A sheikh, or chief, has several tents, one for himself and guests, others for his wives and female servants, and still others for his animals (Gen 31:33). The patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (and Esau), were all wealthy tent dwellers. “Now Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. And he journeyed on from the Negeb as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been in the beginning” (Gen 13:2f.). Later, “Abram moved his tent, and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre” (13:18). Isaac, a farmer and herdsman, lived in tents (Gen 24:67; 26:12ff.). Jacob spent his life in tents, mostly as a rich nomad in Caanan (Gen 31:33; 33:19; 35:21).
In time the tent became a symbol for home and a general term for dwelling, or habitation (skene, Luke 16:9). The Moses Tabernacle was called the “tent of meeting,” occurring numerous times in the wilderness record (Exod 26-Num 31; cf. 2 Sam 7:1-11). Tent was used symbolically, with nostalgic recall, long after Israel was settled in Caanan. David inquired, “O Lord, who shall sojourn in thy tent?” (Ps 15:1); and, “Let me dwell in thy tent forever” (Ps 61:4; cf. 78:60; also Job 1:4; 12:6; 29:4; 31:31; and “tent-cord” 4:21). Prophets often used tent fig. Isaiah, in predicting Babylon’s desolation, declared that “no Arab will pitch his tent there” (Isa 13:20), and by contrast spoke of Jerusalem as “an immovable tent” (33:20), and prophesied Israel’s increase (54:2). Jeremiah, lamenting the fall of Judea, said “My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken...there is no one to spread my tent again, and to set up my curtains” (Jer 10:20). Paul called the flesh “the earthly tent we live in” (2 Cor 5:1), and the author of Hebrews spoke of the “true tent which is set up not by man but by the Lord” (Heb 8:2; cf. Rev 15:5).