Numbers 9:17

17 Whenever the cloud lifted from over the sacred tent, the people of Israel would break camp and follow it. And wherever the cloud settled, the people of Israel would set up camp.

Numbers 9:17 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 9:17

And when the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle
Or went up from it, higher than it was before, yet not out of sight, but hung as it were hovering in the air over the tabernacle, but at some distance from it; this was done by the Lord himself:

then after that the children of Israel journeyed;
as soon as they saw the cloud moving upwards, the Levites took down the tabernacle, and each took their post assigned them in the carriage of it, and the priests blew their trumpets mentioned in ( Numbers 10:2 Numbers 10:4 Numbers 10:8-10 ) , and the whole camp moved and marched on in their journey:

and in the place where the cloud abode, there the children of Israel
pitched their tents;
when it stopped and remained without any motion, it was a signal to the children of Israel to stop also, and to set up the tabernacle, and pitch their tents about it by their standards, and according to the order of encampment which had been given them.

Numbers 9:17 In-Context

15 On the day the Tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered it. But from evening until morning the cloud over the Tabernacle looked like a pillar of fire.

16 This was the regular pattern—at night the cloud that covered the Tabernacle had the appearance of fire.

17 Whenever the cloud lifted from over the sacred tent, the people of Israel would break camp and follow it. And wherever the cloud settled, the people of Israel would set up camp.

18 In this way, they traveled and camped at the LORD ’s command wherever he told them to go. Then they remained in their camp as long as the cloud stayed over the Tabernacle.

19 If the cloud remained over the Tabernacle for a long time, the Israelites stayed and performed their duty to the LORD .