“Moses would take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far away from the camp. He called it the tent of meeting. Everyone who wanted to consult Adonai would go out to the tent of meeting, outside the camp.”-Exodus 33:7
Verse 7 tells us that Moses pitched a “tent” outside the camp.
Now what I find interesting is there are some commentators who will say this was actually the God-ordained Tabernacle.
The word “tabernacle” isn’t used anywhere in these verses, yet many translators have decided yup, the Lord meant “tabernacle” here.
I have a problem with this.
First of all, the Hebrew word being used here is OHEL and it means “tent”.
In fact, it is the only word used to refer to whatever it was we’re told that Moses set up outside the camp.
In other verses in this chapter we’re told that whenever the Israelites saw Moses heading toward his OHEL, they would stand and wait outside their OHEL.
Second, at this point in time, only the Tabernacle building instructions have been provided.
There isn’t any evidence that any actual construction had taken place.
The whole Golden Calf fiasco had interrupted everything.
The covenant that makes Israel the Lord’s people doesn’t even exist at the moment.
Moses has to go back up and receive a 2nd set of tablets to renew the covenant.
Third, the verses plainly tell us that it was Moses who actually set up the tent, not Moses and hundreds of other people, which is how much manpower would have been necessary to put up the real tabernacle.
Finally, the best piece of evidence proving that this is not the Tabernacle is this little excerpt from verse 11.
“Joshua the son of Nun, never left the inside of the tent.”
So Joshua was inside the tent.
However, only Levites are allowed to enter the Tabernacle and Joshua was NOT a Levite.
He comes from the Tribe of Ephraim.
If it was really the Tabernacle that Joshua (or any other non-Levite for that matter) had entered, he would have been killed on the spot.
Of course, Moses was allowed to go into the Tabernacle because he was a Levite.
In addition, in verses 9 and 10, we’re told the cloud of God stationed itself at the ENTRANCE to the tent.
However, with the real Wilderness Tabernacle, the cloud hovered ABOVE the tent.
So my conclusion?
It wasn’t the Tabernacle.
I think this was probably just Moses’ personal tent that was set up as a temporary expedient until the real Tabernacle was built.
Ohel is clearly used for the Tabernacle in Exodus 26:9 with mishkan i 26:7 – so the two terms are used interchangeably.
Moses retired IN the camp. Are we then to presume that this was another tent of Moses if the tent of Ex 33:7 was Moses tent? We have to explore the possibility of an incomplete Tabernacle that was moved..In early Ex 31 God calls Oholiab and Bezalel to start building.
The only problem with this was Moses had not yet come down from the mountain to communicate the instructions of its construction until Ex 32:15 – which is an UP/DOWN count of 7 to 7. In order for there to be a Tabernacle before the Golden Bullock one would perhaps expect the instructions communicated on Down count:6. Unless of course there is a period of time between at the end of Ex 32 and Ex 33:7 when the Tabernacle construction had started. I note interestingly in the Greek OT in Ex 35:10-19 the number of items is much less than the MT.
Basically Ex 35:15c to 18 are not contained in the oldest MSS Greek OT perhaps indicating a partial Tabernacle. Later/ newer Greek mss appear to have filled this in from the MT.
The following is from the MT/KJV OT which I note is not in the MSS LXX: “15c: and the hanging for the door at the entering in of the tabernacle, 16 The altar of burnt offering, with his brasen grate, his staves, and all his vessels, the laver and his foot, 17 The hangings of the court, his pillars, and their sockets, and the hanging for the door of the court, 18 The pins of the tabernacle, and the pins of the court, and their cords,”
The situation still needs more work to ascertain what exactly is happening at this time..
Note also of Ex 33:8 using the KJV: “8 And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the tabernacle.”
re “and stood every man at his tent door” – the forward reading is usually that every man stood at his own tent door and saw Moses going in and out of either his own tent. or temp Tabernacle/or partial Tabernacle. Whatever dwelling Moses was in and this was outside the camp at this point – the arrangement of the 12 Tribes – 4 north 4 south, 4 west and 4 east does not lend eye of sight to an object door on it east side in one direction not even IF placed centre in the camp.
Hence the only way EVERY MAN can see Moses going in and out is if they all were attentive/gathered in front of Moses tent or Tabernacle. Both the MT and the LXX allow for “his tent door” to be translated as “the entrance of the Tabernacle” or the “entrance of the tent”.
We note also that whether tent or Tabernacle “gates” were not used but like the Tabernacle had hangings (veils x3 – 2 inside the Tabernacle and 1 at the east entrance to the courtyard – all facing east – so better translated as “entrance”.