Numbers 4:5

5 When the camp is to set out, Aaron and his sons shall go in and take down the screening curtain, and cover the ark of the covenant with it;

Numbers 4:5 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 4:5

And when the camp setteth forward
Upon the cloud's removing and the trumpets blowing:

Aaron shall come, and his sons;
into the holy place:

and they shall take down the covering vail:
the vail that divided between the holy and the most holy place, which covered all in the holy of holies out of sight:

and cover the ark of testimony with it;
together with the mercy seat and cherubim on it, that they might not be seen nor touched by the Levites when they carried them. Now though the high priest himself might not go into the most holy place but once a year, on the day of atonement, yet on this occasion, when the tabernacle was to be taken down, and the things in it to be removed, both he and his sons might enter without danger; since, as Bishop Patrick observes, the divine Majesty was gone from thence in the cloud which gave the signal for the motion of the camp, and the taking down of the tabernacle.

Numbers 4:5 In-Context

3 from thirty years old up to fifty years old, all who qualify to do work relating to the tent of meeting.

4 The service of the Kohathites relating to the tent of meeting concerns the most holy things.

5 When the camp is to set out, Aaron and his sons shall go in and take down the screening curtain, and cover the ark of the covenant with it;

6 then they shall put on it a covering of fine leather, and spread over that a cloth all of blue, and shall put its poles in place.

7 Over the table of the bread of the Presence they shall spread a blue cloth, and put on it the plates, the dishes for incense, the bowls, and the flagons for the drink offering; the regular bread also shall be on it;

Footnotes

• [a]. Or [treaty], or [testimony]; Heb [eduth]