“On the first day of the first month you shall raise up the tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting.
Parallel translations
- KJV On the first day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation.
- BSB “On the first day of the first month you are to set up the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting.
- NKJV “On the first day of the first month you shall set up the tabernacle of the tent of meeting.
- NASB “On the first day of the first month you shall set up the tabernacle of the tent of meeting.
- NLT “Set up the Tabernacle on the first day of the new year.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God commanded Moses to raise up the tabernacle on the first day of the first month. A new beginning would be marked by God's dwelling among Israel.
Overview
The sanctuary was to be erected on New Year's Day, almost a year after the exodus, marking a fresh start for the redeemed nation now ordered around God's presence. The timing signaled that life with God at the center is the true beginning Israel was made for. It anticipates the new creation inaugurated in Christ, in whom God dwells with His people.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Exod 26:30You shall set up the tabernacle according to the way that it was shown to you on the mountain.
- Exod 13:4Today you go out in the month Abib.
- Exod 40:17–19In the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, the tabernacle was raised up.
- Exod 12:1–2Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,
- Num 7:1On the day that Moses had finished setting up the tabernacle, and had anointed it and sanctified it, with all its furniture, and the altar with all its vessels, and had anointed and sanctified them;
- Num 1:1Yahweh spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying,
- Exod 30:36and you shall beat some of it very small, and put some of it before the testimony in the Tent of Meeting, where I will meet with you. It shall be to you most holy.
- Exod 40:6“You shall set the altar of burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting.
- Exod 36:18He made fifty clasps of brass to couple the tent together, that it might be a unit.
- Exod 26:1“Moreover you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains; of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, with cherubim. The work of the skillful workman you shall make them.
- Exod 27:21In the Tent of Meeting, outside the veil which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall keep it in order from evening to morning before Yahweh: it shall be a statute forever throughout their generations on the behalf of the children of Israel.
- Exod 26:7“You shall make curtains of goats’ hair for a covering over the tabernacle. You shall make them eleven curtains.
- Exod 35:11the tabernacle, its outer covering, its roof, its clasps, its boards, its bars, its pillars, and its sockets;
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Passover lamb whose blood turns away death, the exodus through the sea, the manna, the rock, and the tabernacle where God dwells with his people all foreshadow Jesus — our Passover, our redemption, the bread from heaven, and God-with-us in the flesh.
How Exodus 40:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.