Leviticus 1:1

1. Lord The Hebrew for “Lord” is Jehovah, a name recently disclosed in its fulness of significance. See note on Exodus 3:11, and Concluding Note of the same chapter. We shall use it instead of the more indefinite, generic appellative Lord.

Called… out The calling is as if with an audible voice. See note on Numbers 1:1. This is the sixth and last time this word is used in the Hebrew to indicate the method of communicating the Divine will to Moses, beginning at the burning bush. These important occasions are Exodus 3:4; Exodus 19:3; Exodus 19:20; Exodus 24:16; Exodus 34:6. The next and only person to whom God “called out” is the boy Samuel. 1 Samuel 3:4.

Tabernacle of the congregation Or, tent of meeting. Primarily, where Jehovah met Moses, and secondarily, where Moses met the Israelites. The word “congregation” in the Authorized Version misleads by conveying the impression that the chief use of the tabernacle was to contain the assembled people, like a modern church edifice. The Israelites, except the priests, were not allowed to enter. They could come only to the door of the holy place, the court of the priests. See the description of the newly erected tabernacle, Exodus 25-27. We cannot agree with Murphy that the tabernacle referred to here is the tent which Moses pitched without the camp afar off, probably on the slope of Mount Sinai, and called by the same name, “the tent of meeting.” The message now given to Moses is the first which ever resounded from the Divine Oracle within the tabernacle. Till now the glory of the Lord had so filled it that Moses was not able to enter. Exodus 40:35.