Discovery BoxNumbers 9:15 
Context9:15 1 On 2 the day that the tabernacle was set up, 3 the cloud 4 covered the tabernacle – the tent of the testimony 5 – and from evening until morning there was 6 a fiery appearance 7 over the tabernacle.
Numbers 9:18
Context9:18 At the commandment 8 of the Lord the Israelites would begin their journey, and at the commandment of the Lord they would make camp; as long as 9 the cloud remained settled over the tabernacle they would camp.
Numbers 9:20
Context9:20 When 10 the cloud remained over the tabernacle a number of days, 11 they remained camped according to the Lord’s commandment, 12 and according to the Lord’s commandment they would journey.
Numbers 9:22
Context9:22 Whether it was for two days, or a month, or a year, 13 that the cloud prolonged its stay 14 over the tabernacle, the Israelites remained camped without traveling; 15 but when it was taken up, they traveled on.
Numbers 12:5
Context12:5 And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent; he then called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward.
1 sn This section (Num 9:15-23) recapitulates the account in Exod 40:34 but also contains some additional detail about the cloud that signaled Israel’s journeys. Here again material from the book of Exodus is used to explain more of the laws for the camp in motion.
2 tn Heb “and/now on the day.”
3 tn The construction uses the temporal expression with the Hiphil infinitive construct followed by the object, the tabernacle. “On the day of the setting up of the tabernacle” leaves the subject unstated, and so the entire clause may be expressed in the passive voice.
4 sn The explanation and identification of this cloud has been a subject of much debate. Some commentators have concluded that it was identical with the cloud that led the Israelites away from Egypt and through the sea, but others have made a more compelling case that this is a different phenomenon (see ZPEB 4:796). A number of modern scholars see the description as a retrojection from later, perhaps Solomonic times (see G. H. Davies, IDB 3:817). Others have tried to connect it with Ugaritic terminology, but unconvincingly (see T. W. Mann, “The Pillar of Cloud in the Reed Sea Narrative,” JBL 90 [1971]: 15-30; G. E. Mendenhall, The Tenth Generation, 32-66, 209-13; and R. Good, “Cloud Messengers?” UF 10 [1978]: 436-37).
5 sn The cloud apparently was centered over the tent, over the spot of the ark of the covenant in the most holy place. It thereafter spread over the whole tabernacle.
6 tn The imperfect tense in this and the next line should be classified as a customary imperfect, stressing incomplete action but in the past time – something that used to happen, or would happen.
7 tn Heb “like the appearance of fire.”
8 tn Heb “at the mouth of” (so also in vv. 20, 23).
9 tn Heb “all the days of – that the cloud settled over the tabernacle.” “All” is the adverbial accusative of time telling how long they camped in one spot – all. The word is then qualified by the genitive of the thing measured – “all of the days” – and this in turn is qualified by a noun clause functioning as a genitive after “days of.”
10 tn The sentence uses וְיֵשׁ (vÿyesh) followed by a noun clause introduced with אֲשֶׁר (’asher) to express an existing situation; it is best translated as an adverbial clause of time: “and it was when the cloud was….”
11 tn The word “number” is in apposition to the word “days” to indicate that their stay was prolonged for quite a few days.
12 tn Heb “mouth of the
13 tn The MT has אוֹ־יָמִים (’o-yamim). Most translators use “or a year” to interpret this expression in view of the sequence of words leading up to it, as well as in comparison with passages like Judg 17:10 and 1 Sam 1:3 and 27:7. See also the uses in Gen 40:4 and 1 Kgs 17:15. For the view that it means four months, see F. S. North, “Four Month Season of the Hebrew Bible,” VT 11 (1961): 446-48.
14 tn In the Hebrew text this sentence has a temporal clause using the preposition with the Hiphil infinitive construct of אָרַךְ (’arakh) followed by the subjective genitive, “the cloud.” But this infinitive is followed by the infinitive construct לִשְׁכֹּן (lishkon), the two of them forming a verbal hendiadys: “the cloud made long to stay” becomes “the cloud prolonged its stay.”
15 tn Heb “and they would not journey”; the clause can be taken adverbially, explaining the preceding verbal clause.
