Numbers 10:11

11 And it came to pass in the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month, the cloud went up from the tabernacle of witness.

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 And if ye shall go forth to war in your land against your enemies that are opposed to you, then shall ye sound with the trumpets; and ye shall be had in remembrance before the Lord, and ye shall be saved from your enemies.

10 And in the days of your gladness, and in your feasts, and in your new moons, ye shall sound with the trumpets at your whole-burnt-offerings, and at the sacrifices of your peace-offerings; and there shall be a memorial for you before your God: I the Lord your God.

11 And it came to pass in the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month, the cloud went up from the tabernacle of witness.

12 And the children of Israel set forward with their baggage in the wilderness of Sina; and the cloud rested in the wilderness of Pharan.

13 And the first rank departed by the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses.