Exoduschapter 40
38 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th or 13th century BC · The Law
Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Exodus Overview.
This chapter closes the book of Exodus, and it carries the most exact date the book gives. Every piece made in the chapters before is now set in its place, and Moses does the work himself. It was first heard by a people who had left Egypt as slaves to a king and now camped around the house of their God. Listen for the order in which things are set up and the phrase that follows each act. Notice where Moses is standing when the book ends. The chapter answers the question the whole book has asked, whether God will live among His people.
Context
- Who
- Israel in the wilderness, who from this day moved only when the cloud moved
- What
- The raising and anointing of the tabernacle, the consecration of the priests and the glory of the LORD filling the tent.
- Where
- The camp at the foot of Mount Sinai, where the tent was raised and the cloud settled on it.
- When
- The first day of the first month of the second year after leaving Egypt, near 1446 BC on the traditional early date, with a thirteenth-century date also held.
- Why
- To show God coming to live in the middle of His redeemed people, which is the goal the whole exodus was for.
Historical context
Moses performs every act in this chapter himself, since Aaron and his sons are being consecrated in it and the seven days of that rite are carried out in Leviticus 8. The date is the most exact in the book, the first day of the first month of the second year, and 12:2 had made that month the beginning of months for Israel. Numbers 33:3 says Israel left Rameses on the fifteenth day of the first month, so the structure stands two weeks short of a year after that night. The place is the camp at the foot of Sinai, and Numbers 1:1 opens one month later in the same place.
Show the rest of the historical context, 2 more paragraphs
The occasion is the raising of everything that had been made, the anointing of it, and the consecration of the priesthood.
A first hearer knew the order of erection mattered, since the ark goes in first and the work runs outward from there to the courtyard gate. A man bringing a sacrifice met those things in the reverse of the order they were set up in. A first hearer also knew what the cloud on the tent meant for daily life, because the camp moved when it lifted and stayed while it stayed. The book began with a people made to serve Pharaoh with rigour at 1:13 and 1:14, and the Hebrew root behind that service is the root behind the order of service the book closes with.
Significance
The God who had spoken from a mountain they could not touch now filled a tent in the middle of their camp. That was the point of the exodus, and the book stops the moment it happens.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
Their travel schedule was no longer their own. Israel left Egypt on Pharaoh's timetable, and from here they moved on God's.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
The last chapter raises the tabernacle and fills it with the glory, and the classical reading turns on which day this was. Ramban reports the ruling of the Rabbis that this was the eighth day of the installation of the priests. He works out what follows for the dating of the chapter (Ramban on Exodus 40:2:1, the Chavel translation, CC-BY, citing Sifra at the beginning of Seder Shemini). He says the same at the seventeenth verse, that the tent was first put up on a permanent footing on the first day of the first month (Ramban on Exodus 40:17:1). On the first seven days it was raised and taken apart again each day. Ramban also explains why the bronze altar is called most holy while standing in the court, since the most holy offerings were sacrificed on it (Ramban on Exodus 40:10:1). Rashi reads the screening of the ark as a partition made by the veil (Rashi on Exodus 40:3:1). The table stands in the northern half of the width of the house rather than against the north wall (Rashi on Exodus 40:22:1, citing Yoma 33b). The incense was raised morning and evening, on the rule of Exodus 30:7 and 30:8 (Rashi on Exodus 40:27:1). At the laver he notes that Moses washed with Aaron and his sons, because on that day all of them stood alike in the priestly office (Rashi on Exodus 40:31:1). The closing verses he reads against Numbers 7:89, where Moses does enter the tent. The two are reconciled by the cloud, so that Moses waited while it rested and entered once it lifted (Rashi on Exodus 40:35:1). The cloud rested on the tabernacle at every place where the people camped (Rashi on Exodus 40:38:1). Rashi is quoted from the Rosenbaum and Silbermann edition of 1929 to 1934, public domain. Ibn Ezra comments at Exodus 40:2:1 and 40:34:1, Malbim at five places from Exodus 40:17:1 to 40:33:1, and Sforno at Exodus 40:18:1 and 40:36:1, all cited by reference.
What the rabbis say
The corpus records forty places where the Midrash and the Talmud draw on this chapter, cited here by reference. The raising of the tabernacle is read at Bamidbar Rabbah 1:10, 4:18, 12:1, 12:4, 12:15 and 14:19. Midrash Tanchuma reads it at Ki Tisa 35:3, and Midrash Aggadah at Exodus 40:18:1 and 40:20:1 and at Numbers 7:12:1. The anointing of the altar and the laver is read in Zevachim at 22a:4, 58b:16, 59a:1, 59a:2 and 87a:11. The Jerusalem Talmud reads the service at Shekalim 4:2:4 and 6:3:3, at Yoma 2:1:9, 4:5:8 and 5:2:2, and at Sukkah 4:7:2. Sifra carries the chapter at Vayikra Dibbura DeNedavah, Section 4 14, at Tzav, Mekhilta DeMiluim I 11 and at Acharei Mot, Chapter 6 6. Midrash Lekach Tov reads it at Exodus 40:20:1, 40:32:1, 40:33:1 and 40:38:1, and at Leviticus 24:3:1 and 24:4:1. Shemot Rabbah 19:4 reads the washing of Aaron, and Menachot 99a:10 and Bekhorot 44a:15 the boards and the tent. The Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai reads the cloud at 13:20.
Sources: Ramban, Ramban on Exodus 40:2:1, 40:3:1, 40:10:1 and 40:17:1, Commentary on the Torah translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel, Shilo, New York, 1971 to 1976, CC-BY, 1194 to 1270; Rashi, Rashi on Exodus 40:3 to 40:38, the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain, 1040 to 1105; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Exodus 40:2:1 and 40:34:1, cited by reference, CC-BY-NC, 1089 to 1164; Malbim, Malbim on Exodus 40:17:1, 40:18:1, 40:23:1, 40:25:1 and 40:33:1, cited by reference, no English version in the corpus; Sforno, Sforno on Exodus 40:18:1 and 40:36:1, cited by reference, no English version in the corpus, 1475 to 1550; Sifra, the beginning of Seder Shemini, as Ramban cites it, and Vayikra Dibbura DeNedavah, Section 4 14, cited by reference; Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 33b, as Rashi cites it, and Zevachim 58b:16 and Menachot 99a:10, cited by reference; Bamidbar Rabbah, 1:10, 4:18, 12:1, 12:4, 12:15 and 14:19, cited by reference; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/exodus/40.json, fetched 2026-09-19, 2026; MannaFest, the commentators and their dates, src/app/featured/the-jewish-writings/page.tsx, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Set Up the Tabernacle and Anoint It
Exodus 40:1-2
The last chapter of Exodus opens with a date. Exodus 12:2 had made this month the beginning of months for Israel, so the tent goes up on the first day of the year that the passover created. A calendar reset at the start of the deliverance is answered here by a dwelling place standing in the middle of the camp.
Exodus 40:1
“And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... When the tabernacle, and the work of it, were finished, and he had taken a survey of it, and everything belonging to it, which appeared to be done as was ordered: saying; as follows.”
On the first day of the first month: Verse 17 records the tabernacle set up on that day, in the second year. Matthew Henry and John Wesley note that the cleansing of the house of the LORD under Hezekiah began on the same date, at 2 Chronicles 29:17. Theodoret of Cyrus ties the date to creation.
Exodus 40:2
“On the first day of the first month,.... Which was the month Nisan, as the Targum of Jonathan expresses it; which was the month the children of Israel came out of Egypt, out of which they had now been a whole year, excepting fourteen days: shalt thou set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation; the tabernacle, which had a tent or covering over it, to which the people were gathered at times for religious service.”
2 more voices on this verse
Exodus 40:2
“The first day of the first month - It Is generally supposed that the Israelites began the work of the tabernacle about the sixth month after they had left Egypt; and as the work was finished about the end of the first year of their exodus, (for it was set up the first day of the second year), that therefore they had spent about six months in making it: so that the tabernacle was erected one year all but fifteen days after they had left Egypt.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Exodus 40:2
“The time for doing this is, On the first day of the first month - This wanted but fourteen days of a year since they came out of Egypt. Probably the work was made ready just at the end of the year, so that the appointing this day gave no delay. In Hezekiah's time they began to sanctify the temple on the first day of the first month, 2 Chron. xxix, 17.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Exodus 40:3-5
The command runs from the inside out. The ark goes in first and is screened with the veil, then the table and the lampstand, then the gold altar of incense, then the curtain at the entrance to the tabernacle. Most of what is arranged here stands in two rooms closed to everyone outside the priesthood.
Adam Clarke reads the arrangement as the twelve loaves in order. Albert Barnes observes that the command assumes the rules for the bread of Leviticus 24:5-9. Moses carries out both at verses 22 to 25, the bread and the lamps before the LORD.
Exodus 40:4
“Thou shalt bring in the table, and set in order the things, etc. - That is, Thou shalt place the twelve loaves upon the table in the order before mentioned. See Clarke’s note on Exo 25:30.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 40:4
“The directions given in Lev 24:5-9 are here presupposed, and must have been issued before this chapter was written.”
The gold altar stands in front of the ark of the Testimony, with the veil between them. Exodus 30:6 gave the same position, in front of the veil before the mercy seat. Its gold, John Gill notes, sets it apart.
Exodus 40:6-8
Outside the tent the order keeps running outward, the altar at the entrance, the basin between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, then the courtyard and its gate curtain. A man bringing a sacrifice met these in reverse, the gate first and the tent entrance last. Exodus 27:9 to 19 gave the courtyard a hundred cubits by fifty, so the dwelling stood inside a fence of linen.
Exodus 40:6
“And thou shall set the altar of the burnt offering,.... Where the sacrifices of the people were to be brought, and offered up by the priests; and this was to be set up in the open court, as it was proper it should, both because of the smell and smoke of the sacrifices: before the door of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation; just a little before the entrance into the holy place.”
John Gill reads the basin as a type of the fountain Zechariah 13:1 opens for the house of David to wash in. Exodus 30:18 gave the same place for it. The water goes in on the day it stands.
Exodus 40:7
“And thou shall set the laver,.... As is directed in Exo 30:18.”
The courtyard goes up last in the command and last in the doing, at verse 33, where the sentence ends So Moses finished the work. John Gill points to Exodus 27:9 for its curtains. It encloses both the tent and the bronze altar.
Exodus 40:8
“And thou shall set up the court round about,.... Which consisted of various hangings, east, west, north, and south; see Exo 27:9.”
Exodus 40:9-11
take the anointing oil, and anoint the tabernacle: The oil of 30:22 to 33 goes over the tent, its furnishings, the altar and the basin, and what changes is each thing's status. Matthew Henry observes that each item was sanctified once it stood in its proper place, fit for the use it was set apart for. The altar of burnt offering is called most holy, the one anointed piece standing in the open courtyard where the people came.
Exodus 40:9
“Observe, Every thing was sanctified when it was put in its proper place, and not till then, for till then it was not fit for the use to which it was to be sanctified.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Albert Barnes takes most holy here as a caution, as the altar stood where the gathered people might touch it. John Calvin reads the title through the sacrifices, which taught Israel that God is reconciled by burnt offerings. Exodus 29:37 had given it the same title.
Exodus 40:10
“Most holy - In Exo 40:9 the tabernacle and its utensils are said to be rendered holy by the anointing; the altar and its utensils are in Exo 40:10 said to be “most holy”. The difference does not express a higher degree of holiness: it is only used as a caution. The position of the altar exposed it to the chance of being touched by the people when they assembled in the court, while they were not permitted to enter the tabernacle. The tabernacle itself, with all that belonged to it, is called most holy in Exo 30:29.”
The basin comes third in the anointing, after the tabernacle and the altar. Exodus 30:26-28 lists the basin and its stand among the things the oil was to touch, and John Gill points to that passage. Leviticus 8:11 records the anointing of the basin.
Exodus 40:12-13
Aaron is washed with water, clothed in the holy garments, and anointed, in that order. Exodus 29 laid out the whole rite and this is the order to carry it out. The word anoint first occurs in Scripture at Exodus 28:41 and the word atonement at Exodus 29:33, so both arrive with the priesthood rather than with the passover seventeen chapters earlier.
Exodus 40:12
“And thou shalt bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation,.... To wash, anoint, and clothe them, as in the two following verses Exo 40:13, that they might minister in the priest's office, according to Exo 28:41.”
2 more voices on this verse
Exodus 40:12
“Hence it appears how foolishly the Popish bishops, as it were, ape Moses, when, in imitation of him, they sprinkle their priests and altars and other rubbish with stinking oil, since it is abundantly clear that this ceremony of anointing, belonging as it did to the ancient shadows of the Law, ceased at the coming of Christ.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
Exodus 40:12
“The law which was now ordered to be put in execution we had before, ch. xxix. Thus in the visible church, which is God's tabernacle among men, it is requisite that there be ministers to keep the charge of the sanctuary, and that they receive the anointing.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The purpose of the clothing and the anointing is service to the LORD as priest. John Calvin holds that this anointing belonged to the shadows of the law and ceased at the coming of Christ. Leviticus 8:12 records Moses pouring the oil on Aaron's head.
Exodus 40:14-15
The sons are clothed and anointed as their father was, and the anointing brings a permanent priesthood throughout their generations. Hebrews 7:23 takes up the same office and says there were many priests since death prevented them from continuing in office. Two of the sons anointed here offer unauthorized fire and die at Leviticus 10:1 and 2.
Adam Clarke reads the verse as a grant to the sons of Aaron, so later priests served by birth and were not anointed again. Each new high priest was still anointed with the oil, he adds, citing Leviticus 4:3. John Wesley holds this anointing sufficient for all their generations.
Moses Finishes All the Work
One verse carries the whole report of the obedience, Moses did everything just as the LORD had commanded him. Chapter 32 sits between the instructions and the building. The refrain in these closing chapters is the record that this time the people did what they were told.
Exodus 40:16
“Thus did Moses: according to all that the Lord commanded him--On his part, the same scrupulous fidelity was shown in conforming to the "pattern" in the disposition of the furniture, as had been displayed by the workmen in the erection of the edifice.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The date is exact, the first day of the first month of the second year. Numbers 33:3 says Israel left Rameses on the fifteenth day of the first month, so the tabernacle stands two weeks short of a year after the Passover night. Numbers 1:1 opens one month after this verse, on the first day of the second month of the same year.
Exodus 40:18-19
The bases go down first and everything else rests on them. Exodus 38:27 says the hundred silver bases were cast from the atonement money, a talent to a base, so the frame of the dwelling stands on ransom silver. The tent and the coverings go over the frame, and the refrain just as the LORD had commanded him begins here and returns after each thing is put in place.
Adam Clarke notes that these coverings were the only roof the tabernacle had. Albert Barnes separates the layers, the tent cloth spread over the tabernacle cloth and the skins laid over both. Exodus 26:7 and 26:14 ordered them.
Exodus 40:19
“And he spread abroad the tent over the tabernacle,.... Which were curtains of goats' hair: and put the covering of the tent above upon it; which was of rams' skins died red, and over that another covering of badgers' skins: as the Lord commanded Moses; Exo 26:7.”
Exodus 40:20-21
The Testimony placed in the ark is the second pair of tablets, cut at 34:1 and written at 34:28 after Moses broke the first at 32:19. The mercy seat goes above it, and the Septuagint's word for that seat is hilasterion, the word Romans 3:25 applies to Christ. The veil is put up to screen the ark, and Matthew 27:51 reports that curtain torn in two from top to bottom.
John Gill says the veil hid the ark from everyone, the priests in the holy place included. Exodus 26:33 had ordered the veil to separate the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. Leviticus 16:2 restricts entry behind it.
Exodus 40:21
“And he brought the ark into the tabernacle,.... Into that part of it called the holy of holies: and set up the vail of the covering, and covered the ark of the testimony; the vail which divided between the and most holy place, and so kept out of sight the ark of the testimony within, from being seen by any, even by the priests in the holy place: as the Lord commanded Moses; Exo 26:33.”
Exodus 40:22-23
The table stands on the north side outside the vail and Moses sets the bread on it before the Lord. Leviticus 24:5-9 gives the arrangement, twelve cakes in two rows renewed every sabbath, one loaf for each tribe of Israel. The bread is set out in a room that nobody outside the priesthood will ever see.
Exodus 40:22
“And he put the table in the tent of the congregation,.... In the holy place; for there the shewbread table, which is here meant, was put: upon the side of the tabernacle northward, without the vail; on the north side of the tabernacle, at a little distance from the walls, which were the curtains and boards, even in the holy place on the outside of the vail, which divided from the most holy place.”
Albert Barnes notes that Moses arranged the bread before the tabernacle and its furnishings were anointed. He holds that their holiness lay in their being made as the LORD had commanded, and the anointing sealed it. John Gill ties the act to 25:30.
Exodus 40:23
“And he set the bread in order upon it before the Lord,.... The shewbread, the twelve cakes of it, in two rows, six in a row: as the Lord had commanded Moses: Exo 25:30.”
Exodus 40:24-25
The candlestick faces the table from the south side, and Moses lights the lamps himself. Aaron and his sons are washed and clothed in this chapter and the seven days of their consecration are carried out in Leviticus 8, so the priestly acts here fall to Moses. John Gill makes the same observation at the incense in verse 27.
Exodus 40:24
“And he put the candlestick in the tent of the congregation,.... In the same place, the holy place: over against the table: the shewbread table: on the side of the tabernacle southward: directly opposite to the table.”
Exodus 27:21 gives the lamps to Aaron and his sons from evening until morning. John Gill counts seven lamps, as Exodus 25:37 ordered, and Moses lights them as the priests are still to be invested. Bread and lamps both stand before the LORD.
Exodus 40:25
“And he lighted the lamps before the Lord,.... The seven lamps belonging to it: this, though it was the business of the priests of Aaron, and his sons, yet they not being at present invested with their office, was done by Moses, who in this and several other things mentioned in this chapter officiated as a priest: as the Lord commanded Moses, Exo 25:37.”
Exodus 40:26-27
The gold altar stands in front of the veil, as near the ark as anything outside the Most Holy Place, and Moses burns fragrant incense on it. Exodus 30:34 to 38 gave the compound and forbade anyone to make it for himself. Revelation 8:3 and 4 sets an angel at a golden altar with much incense offered along with the prayers of all the saints.
Exodus 40:26
“And he put the golden altar,.... The altar of incense; so called because it was overlaid with gold, and to distinguish it from the altar of burnt offering, which was covered with brass: to this altar there is an allusion in Rev 8:3. in the tent of the congregation, before the vail; in the same place, the holy place, where the shewbread table and candlestick were, and these were all the furniture of it; and this was put, not within the vail, but before it, over against the ark, as that stood within it, Exo 40:5.”
Exodus 30:7-8 ties the incense to the lamps, burned each morning when the lamps are tended and again at twilight. Moses lights the lamps at verse 25 and burns the incense here, in the same order. Matthew Henry says God's altar must be a smoking altar.
Exodus 40:27
“And he burnt sweet incense thereon,.... Which is another branch of the priestly office exercised by Moses, and which he would never have done had he not had a command from God for it, as follows: as the Lord commanded Moses; he commanded Moses indeed to order and direct Aaron to do this, but he being not yet consecrated, Moses, being the Lord's priest, did it.”
Exodus 40:28-29
The curtain closes the entrance of the tent, and the altar of burnt offering stands outside it where the blood and the smoke belong. Moses offers the burnt offering and the grain offering on it, the first sacrifice at the finished tabernacle. Exodus 29:38 to 42 had set a lamb on that altar morning and evening, and Leviticus 6:13 orders its fire never to go out.
Exodus 40:28
“And he set up the hanging at the door of the tabernacle. That is, at the door of the holy place, all being brought into it that were to be placed there.”
John Gill gives two readings of this offering, the daily burnt offering as Jarchi took it, or the offering for the consecration of Aaron and his sons at Exodus 29:1. Matthew Henry notes the offering was ready at once.
Exodus 40:29
“And he put the altar of burnt offering by the door of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation,.... Of which see Exo 40:6. and offered upon it the burnt offering and the meat offering; either the burnt offering the meat offering of the daily sacrifice, as Jarchi interprets it, see Exo 28:38 or it may be rather the burnt offering and meat offering of the consecration of Aaron and his sons, Exo 29:1. as the Lord commanded Moses; in the places referred to.”
Exodus 40:30-32
The basin sits between the altar and the entrance, so a priest passes the place of blood and then the place of water before he goes in. Exodus 38:8 says it was made from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance, and the text gives it no measurements. They washed whenever they entered the Tent of Meeting or approached the altar, a thing done continually.
Exodus 40:30
“And he set the laver between the tent of the congregation and the altar,.... Of which position, see Exo 30:18. and put water there to wash withal; for the priests to wash their hands and feet with; a type of that laver or fountain opened for the house of David and inhabitants of Jerusalem to wash in, Zec 13:1.”
John Gill notes that Moses washes with Aaron and his sons, since he acts as priest until they are consecrated. Jarchi, as Gill reports him, places this washing on the eighth day of the consecration. Exodus 30:19 named the hands and feet.
Exodus 40:31
“And Moses, and Aaron, and his sons, washed their hands and their feet thereat. This laver was for the priests, and Moses, officiating as a priest, washed in it, with Aaron, and his sons, whom he was now about to consecrate to the priest's office, and invest with it by offering sacrifice for them; Jarchi says this was on the eighth day of the consecration.”
Moses, Aaron and his sons washed their hands and feet at the basin placed between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, by verses 30 and 31. Exodus 30:20-21 gives the reason, that they wash so they will not die, and makes it a permanent statute. The refrain falls here for the last time in Exodus.
The sentence that closes the building, So Moses finished the work, echoes Genesis 2:2, where God had finished the work He had been doing. Exodus 39:32 matches Genesis 2:1 on the work completed, and 39:43 matches Genesis 1:31 on the maker looking at all that was made. The instructions came in seven divine speeches at 25:1, 30:11, 30:17, 30:22, 30:34, 31:1 and 31:12, and the seventh is the Sabbath.
Exodus 40:33
“So Moses finished the work--Though it is not expressly recorded in this passage, yet, from what took place on all similar occasions, there is reason to believe that on the inauguration day the people were summoned from their tents--were all drawn up as a vast assemblage, yet in calm and orderly arrangement, around the newly erected tabernacle.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The Glory Fills the Tabernacle
Exodus 40:34-35
At 33:18 Moses asked to see the glory and was shown My back. Here the glory fills a tent in the camp, and Moses was unable to enter the Tent of Meeting, though he entered the cloud at 24:18. The same happens at the temple in 1 Kings 8:11, where the priests could not stand there to minister because of the cloud.
Exodus 40:34
“With these the tabernacle was now filled, yet, as before the bush was not consumed, so now the curtains were not so much as singed by this fire; for to those that have received the anointing the terrible majesty of God is not destroying.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Connections1 Kings 8:10, Exodus 25:8, John 1:14, Luke 1:35
Matthew Henry compares the tent to the burning bush, filled with the glory while its curtains stood unharmed by the fire. Albert Barnes describes the glory as a light within and a cloud on the outside. Leviticus 1:1 finds the LORD calling to Moses from this tent.
Exodus 40:35
“He was able to enter into the holy place not made with hands ( Heb. ix. 24 ); nay, he is himself the true tabernacle, filled with the glory of God ( John i. 14 ), even with the divine grace and truth prefigured by this fire and light.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Exodus 40:36-37
The pillar that led Israel out of Egypt at 13:21 now rests on the tent and sets the pace of the camp. They move when it lifts and stay while it stays, and the text gives no schedule and no distance. Numbers 9:15 to 23 works the arrangement out at length, Whether the cloud lingered for two days, a month, or longer.
Exodus 40:36
“When the cloud was taken up - The subject of these three last verses has been very largely explained in the notes on Exo 13:21, to which, as well as to the general remarks on that chapter, the reader is requested immediately to refer. See Clarke’s note on Exo 13:21.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 40:36
“While the cloud continued on the tabernacle, they rested; when it removed, they removed and followed it, as being purely under divine direction. This is spoken of more fully, Num. ix.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that travellers in the eastern deserts have long used torches, smoke by day and fire by night, to lead a caravan. The cloud of the LORD did that work for Israel. The camp stayed until the day it lifted.
The book ends on the cloud by day and fire by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel. Exodus opened with Israel serving Pharaoh at 1:13 and 14 and closes with service to God, the same Hebrew root at both ends. John 1:14 says The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us, using the Greek verb for pitching a tent.
Exodus 40:38
“For the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day - This daily and nightly appearance was at once both a merciful providence, and a demonstrative proof of the Divinity of their religion: and these tokens continued with them throughout all their journeys; for, notwithstanding their frequently repeated disobedience and rebellion, God never withdrew these tokens of his presence from them, till they were brought into the promised land.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 40:38
“A concealment of the tabernacle, and the glory of God in it. God did indeed dwell among them, but he dwelt in a cloud: Verily thou art a God that hidest, thyself. Blessed be God for the gospel of Christ, in which we all with open face behold as in a glass, not in a cloud, the glory of the Lord.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
How this psalm is built
The form: Command and execution in one chapter, closing the book with the glory filling the finished tent, as site classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Said once as an order and once as a deed | Verses 1 to 15 give the order for setting the tent up, anointing it and consecrating the priests. Verses 16 to 33 carry it out in the same sequence. The chapter prints the instruction and the obedience side by side, which no other chapter of the book does at this length. | Exodus 40:3, Exodus 40:21, Exodus 40:9, Exodus 40:29 |
| Just as the LORD had commanded him | The line falls after each thing is put in its place, at the frame, the ark, the table, the lampstand, the incense, the burnt offering and the basin. Counted in the Berean text of this store it stands eight times in this chapter. Verse 16 gathers the whole of it into one sentence before the work begins. | Exodus 40:16, Exodus 40:19, Exodus 40:23, Exodus 40:32 |
| Set up from the inside out | The order runs from the ark and the veil at verse 3, out to the table and the lampstand, then the gold altar. The entrance curtain follows, then the altar of burnt offering, the basin and the courtyard gate. A man bringing a sacrifice met them in the reverse of the order they were set up in. | Exodus 40:3, Exodus 40:5, Exodus 40:6, Exodus 40:8 |
The chapter is dated twice, at verse 2 and verse 17, and the date carries weight. Exodus 12:2 had made this month the beginning of months for Israel, so the tent goes up on the first day of the year the Passover created. Numbers 33:3 says Israel left Rameses on the fifteenth day of the first month, so the tabernacle stands two weeks short of a year after that night. Numbers 1:1 opens one month after this verse.
11 more paragraphs on the patterns
The book ends where it began, with the same Hebrew root. Exodus 1:13 and 1:14 have a people made to serve Pharaoh with rigour. The book closes with a tent, a priesthood and an order of service to God, and the root behind the word for service is the same at both ends.
The closing of the work is written like the closing of creation. Exodus 39:32 matches Genesis 2:1 on the work being finished, 39:43 matches Genesis 1:31 on the maker looking at all that was made, and verse 33 here matches Genesis 2:2 on the work being ended. The instructions came in seven divine speeches at 25:1, 30:11, 30:17, 30:22, 30:34, 31:1 and 31:12, and the seventh of them was the Sabbath.
The New Testament's use
John 1:14 says the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, using the Greek verb for pitching a tent. The glory that fills a tent in the middle of the camp at verse 34 is the picture that sentence reaches for. Hebrews 7:23 and 7:24 take up the priesthood anointed at verses 14 and 15 and say the priests were many in number because death kept them from continuing. Revelation 8:3 and 8:4 set an angel at a golden altar with incense offered together with the prayers of all the saints.
1 Kings 8:10 and 8:11 report the same thing at the dedication of the temple, where the priests could not stand to minister because the cloud filled the house.
The detail worth noticing
The Testimony placed in the ark at verse 20 is the second pair of tablets, cut at 34:1 and written at 34:28 after Moses broke the first pair at 32:19. The thing at the centre of the finished structure is the covenant document that had been smashed eight chapters earlier.
Moses had asked at 33:18 to be shown the glory, and was set in a cleft of the rock to see the back of it. Here the glory fills a tent he has just finished building, and he cannot get in. The man who went into the thick darkness at 20:21 and into the cloud on the mountain at 24:18 stands outside.
Numbers 9:15 to 9:23 works the arrangement of verses 36 to 38 out at length, and says they kept the charge of the LORD whether the cloud stayed two days, a month or a year.
Where to go deeper
The ark placed at verse 20 is set out at the ark of the covenant and its lid at the mercy seat. The priests anointed at verses 12 to 15 stand at the priest. The bread of verse 23 stands at the showbread and the lamps of verse 25 at the lampstand. No page on the tabernacle as a whole stands under /featured, and the page is listed as owed.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The context
Keil, The Books of the Kings and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
The form and classifications
This site.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Alfred Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services; Chuck Missler, Learn the Bible in 24 Hours; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Sir Robert Anderson, Types in Hebrews and Theodoret of Cyrus, QUESTIONS ON EXODUS 72.