Exodus 40:37

37 But if the column didn't move, they wouldn't break camp.

Exodus 40:37 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 40:37

But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed
not
Even if it continued so two days, or a month, or a year, as very probably it sometimes did; which will in some measure account for the long continuance of the Israelites in the wilderness, see ( Numbers 9:22 )

till the day that it was taken up:
or, "of its ascent" ^F6, being "lifted up", or going upwards, higher in the air, right over the tabernacle, or perhaps more to the front of it; the word used before in this and the preceding verse has the signification of ascending upwards.

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FOOTNOTES:

F6 (wtleh) "sustolli ejus", Montanus.

Exodus 40:37 In-Context

35 Moses couldn't go into the tent of meeting, because the smoke settled on it and the glory of the LORD filled the tent.

36 In all their travels, whenever the [column of] smoke moved from the tent, the Israelites would break camp.

37 But if the column didn't move, they wouldn't break camp.

38 So the LORD's column stayed over the tent during the day, and there was fire in the smoke at night. In this way all the Israelites could see the column throughout their travels.