Setting Up the Tabernacle

40 Then the Lord said to Moses: ² “Set up^(A) the tabernacle, the tent of meeting,^(B) on the first day of the first month.^{(C) 3} Place the ark^(D) of the covenant law in it and shield the ark with the curtain. ⁴ Bring in the table^(E) and set out what belongs on it.^(F) Then bring in the lampstand^(G) and set up its lamps. ⁵ Place the gold altar^(H) of incense in front of the ark of the covenant law and put the curtain at the entrance to the tabernacle.

⁶ “Place the altar^(I) of burnt offering in front of the entrance to the tabernacle, the tent of meeting; ⁷ place the basin^(J) between the tent of meeting and the altar and put water in it. ⁸ Set up the courtyard^(K) around it and put the curtain at the entrance to the courtyard.

³³ Then Moses set up the courtyard^(A) around the tabernacle and altar and put up the curtain^(B) at the entrance to the courtyard. And so Moses finished the work.

The Glory of the Lord

³⁴ Then the cloud^(C) covered the tent of meeting, and the glory^(D) of the Lord filled the tabernacle. ³⁵ Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory^(E) of the Lord filled the tabernacle.^(F)

³⁶ In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out;^{(G) 37} but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out—until the day it lifted. ³⁸ So the cloud^(H) of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the Israelites during all their travels.