Numbers 9:17

17 Whenever the cloud was lifted up above the tent, the Israelites would set out; at the place where the cloud stopped, there the Israelites camped.^[a]

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 the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony, and it appeared like fire above the tabernacle from evening until morning.

16 It remained that way continuously: the cloud would cover it, appearing like fire at night.

17 Whenever the cloud was lifted up above the tent, the Israelites would set out; at the place where the cloud stopped, there the Israelites camped.

18 At the Lord's command the Israelites set out, and at the Lord's command they camped. As long as the cloud stayed over the tabernacle, they camped.

19 Even when the cloud stayed over the tabernacle many days, the Israelites carried out the Lord's requirement and did not set out.

Footnotes

• [a]. Nm 10:11,33-34; Ex 40:36-38