J18-5: The Reason Why The Sacred Tent Went By Many Different Names During Joshua’s Time

Over the last couple of days, we’ve established a couple of important facts.

First, we established that the location of Israel’s central government was moved from Gilgal to Shiloh.

Gilgal was territory that was still no-man’s land and Shiloh was located in newly assigned Ephraimite territory.

Shiloh would remain the capital and Joshua would rule from there for a good 3 centuries (until the time of Eli in the book of Samuel).

According to Rashi, the form of the sacred tent underwent some serious alterations.

And when I say “serious”, I’m not joking.

The tent during this time had no roof and the floor was made up of stones cobbled together.

Here’s another important fact that explains why the sacred tent was called by a number of different names in the Scriptures.

During this time, it was used as BOTH a holy sanctuary and living quarters for Joshua and his successors.

That’s why in the Scriptures, it was also called…

…”the tent”…

…”the tent of Joseph”…

…or…

…”the house of the Lord”.

Rashi’s observations make sense since the tribes were scattered all over the land of Canaan with many parts still not conquered.

At this time, each tribe would have been busy with their own day-to-day needs and tribal affairs.

So no one felt the urgent need to get together and construct this elaborate and impressive tent structure that would have taken much blood, sweat and tears to build and erect.