On the first day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation.
Parallel translations
- WEB “On the first day of the first month you shall raise up the tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting.
- 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 26:30And thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof which was shewed thee in the mount.
- Exod 13:4This day came ye out in the month Abib.
- Exod 40:17–19And it came to pass in the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, that the tabernacle was reared up.
- Exod 12:1–2And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,
- Num 7:1And it came to pass on the day that Moses had fully set up the tabernacle, and had anointed it, and sanctified it, and all the instruments thereof, both the altar and all the vessels thereof, and had anointed them, and sanctified them;
- Num 1:1And the LORD spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying,
- Exod 30:36And thou shalt beat some of it very small, and put of it before the testimony in the tabernacle of the congregation, where I will meet with thee: it shall be unto you most holy.
- Exod 40:6And thou shalt set the altar of the burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation.
- Exod 36:18And he made fifty taches of brass to couple the tent together, that it might be one.
- Exod 26:1Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubims of cunning work shalt thou make them.
- Exod 27:21In the tabernacle of the congregation without the vail, which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall order it from evening to morning before the LORD: it shall be a statute for ever unto their generations on the behalf of the children of Israel.
- Exod 26:7And thou shalt make curtains of goats’ hair to be a covering upon the tabernacle: eleven curtains shalt thou make.
- Exod 35:11The tabernacle, his tent, and his covering, his taches, and his boards, his bars, his pillars, and his 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.