Numbers 9:15

15. Cloud covered… tabernacle For a striking note on the cloud see Exodus 13:21. As soon as the tabernacle was dedicated the CLOUD came down upon it and the glory filled it, so that Moses was not able to enter in. Exodus 40:35. From this time onward, till the entrance into Canaan, the cloud which had guided them to Sinai never removed from the tabernacle except to indicate the direction in which the host was to advance. The tent of the testimony, or holy of holies, is signalized by the cloud because it contained the ark of the covenant, the tables of the decalogue, the basis of the covenant of Jehovah. Rosenmuller and Knobel say, that “the cloud covered the dwelling at the tent of witness,” that is, stood over the most holy place. Keil objects to this, inasmuch as ל , to, is a preposition of motion and not of rest. Moreover, in Exodus 40:34-35 , the whole tabernacle of the congregation was covered by the cloud, and not merely one portion. These passages may be harmonized by the supposition that the cloud which at first filled the whole tabernacle, and covered its whole extent, afterward gathered itself into a well defined pillar which stood over the holy of holies.