Numbers 10:11

11 On the twentieth day of the second month of the second year, the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle of the testimony;

Numbers 10:11 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 10:11

And it came to pass, on the twentieth [day] of the second
month, in the second year
Which was the twentieth of the month Ijar, in the second year of the coming of the Israelites out of Egypt; who, as it appears from hence, compared with ( Exodus 19:1 ) ; had been in the wilderness of Sinai twelve months wanting ten days; so Jarchi and other Jewish writers ^F13, with whom Aben Ezra agrees, who says it was near a year:

that the cloud was taken up from off the tabernacle of the testimony;
that part of the tabernacle where the ark of the testimony stood, even the most holy place, over which the cloud was, the token of the divine Presence, and which it covered; but now was taken up from it, and went up higher above it, and was a signal for the motion of the camps of Israel to set forward in their journey towards Canaan's land.

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FOOTNOTES:

F13 Seder Olam Rabba, c. 8. p. 23. Abarbinel

Numbers 10:11 In-Context

9 "When you go to war in your land against an adversary who is oppressing you, you are to sound an alarm with the trumpets; then you will be remembered before ADONAI your God, and you will be saved from your enemies.

10 "Also on your days of rejoicing, at your designated times and on Rosh-Hodesh, you are to sound the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; these will be your reminder before your God. I am ADONAI your God."

11 On the twentieth day of the second month of the second year, the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle of the testimony;

12 and the people of Isra'el moved out in stages from the Sinai Desert. The cloud stopped in the Pa'ran Desert.

13 So they set out on their first journey, in keeping with ADONAI's order through Moshe.