Discovery BoxNumbers 9:16 
Context9:16 This is the way it used to be continually: The cloud would cover it by day, 1 and there was a fiery appearance by night.
Numbers 9:19
Context9:19 When the cloud remained over the tabernacle many days, then the Israelites obeyed the instructions 2 of the Lord and did not journey.
Numbers 10:11-12
Context10:11 3 On the twentieth day of the second month, in the second year, the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle of the testimony. 4 10:12 So the Israelites set out 5 on their journeys from the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud settled in the wilderness of Paran.
Numbers 12:10
Context12:10 When 6 the cloud departed from above the tent, Miriam became 7 leprous 8 as snow. Then Aaron looked at 9 Miriam, and she was leprous!
Numbers 16:42
Context16:42 When the community assembled 10 against Moses and Aaron, they turned toward the tent of meeting – and 11 the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared.
1 tc The MT lacks the words “by day,” but a number of ancient versions have this reading (e.g., Greek, Syriac, Tg. Ps.-J., Latin Vulgate).
2 tn This is the same Hebrew expression that was used earlier for the Levites “keeping their charge” or more clearly, “fulfilling their obligations” to take care of the needs of the people and the sanctuary. It is a general expression using שָׁמַר (shamar) followed by its cognate noun מִשְׁמֶרֶת (mishmeret).
3 sn This section is somewhat mechanical: It begins with an introduction (vv. 11, 12), and then begins with Judah (vv. 13-17), followed by the rest of the tribes (vv. 18-27), and finally closes with a summary (v. 28). The last few verses (vv. 29-36) treat the departure of Hobab.
4 tc Smr inserts a lengthy portion from Deut 1:6-8, expressing the command for Israel to take the land from the Amorites.
tn The expression is difficult; it is מִשְׁכַּן הָעֵדֻת (mishkan ha’edut). The reference is to the sacred shrine that covered the ark with the commandments inside. NEB renders the expression as “tabernacle of the Token”; NAB has “the dwelling of the commandments.”
5 sn The verb is the same as the noun: “they journeyed on their journeyings.” This underscores the point of their continual traveling.
6 tn The disjunctive vav (ו) is here introducing a circumstantial clause of time.
7 tn There is no verb “became” in this line. The second half of the line is introduced with the particle הִנֵה (hinneh, “look, behold”) in its archaic sense. This deictic use is intended to make the reader focus on Miriam as well.
8 sn The word “leprosy” and “leprous” covers a wide variety of skin diseases, and need not be limited to the actual disease of leprosy known today as Hansen’s disease. The description of it here has to do with snow, either the whiteness or the wetness. If that is the case then there would be open wounds and sores – like Job’s illness (see M. Noth, Numbers [OTL], 95-96).
9 tn Heb “turned to.”
10 tn The temporal clause is constructed with the temporal indicator (“and it was”) followed by the Niphal infinitive construct and preposition.
11 tn The verse uses וְהִנֵּה (vÿhinneh, “and behold”). This is the deictic particle – it is used to point things out, suddenly calling attention to them, as if the reader were there. The people turned to look toward the tent – and there is the cloud!
