Biblion Bible Commentary
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The Tabernacle Raised
Exodus 40:1-33
1 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, · WEB
The tent goes up on New Year's Day, one year to the fortnight since the nation left Egypt.
On the first day of the first month you shall raise up the tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting Exodus 40:2.
The date is given twice, and it is not arbitrary. The first month is the month whose beginning was reset by the Passover Exodus 12:2, and in the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, the tabernacle was raised up Exodus 40:17. Two weeks short of a year since the night of the exodus, the nation has a sanctuary.
The order of assembly is prescribed and followed exactly: the boards and sockets, then the ark placed inside with the veil hung in front of it, then the table, the lampstand, the incense altar, the screen, the bronze altar and the basin, and last the court Exodus 40:18–33. Inside outward, as the instructions were given. Seven times in these verses the account stops to say as Yahweh commanded Moses, and the refrain now attaches to one man. He raises it himself.
He raised up the court around the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the screen of the gate of the court. So Moses finished the work Exodus 40:33.
The phrase is again the language of the seventh day, where God finished the work he had made Genesis 2:2. What was shown on a mountain to a man who had asked to be excused now stands, complete, in the middle of a camp.
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