81). See CONGKEGATIOX.
(6.) The other compound phrase, lni> H PflX, as con- nected with "TIJJ (=to bear witness), is rightly ren- dered by >'/ (TKrjvrj rov fiaprvpiov, tabernactiliim testi- vionii, die Wohnnng des Zeiignisses, " the tent of the tes- timony" (Numb, ix, 15) "the tabernacle of witness" (xvii, 7 ; xviii, 2). In this case the tent derives its name from that which is the centre of its holiness. The two tables of stone within the ark are emphatical- ly the testimony (Exod. xxv, 16, 21 ; xxxi, 18). They were to all Israel the abiding witness of the nature and will of God. The tent, by virtue of its relation to them, became the witness of its own significance as the meeting-place of God and man. The probable con- nection of the two distinct names, in sense as well as in sound (Biihr, Sytnb. i, 83, Ewald, Alt. p. 230), gave, of course, a force to each which no translation can repre- sent. See Testijiony.
II. History. — 1. We may distinguish in the Old Test, three sacred tabernacles.
(1.) The Ante-Sinaitic, which was probably the dwell- ing of Moses, and was placed by the camp of the Is- raelites in the desert, for the transaction of public busi-
ness. Exod. xxxiii, 7-10, "Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the Congregation. And it came to pass, that every one which sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was witliout the camp. And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the peo- ple rose up, and stood every man at his tent-door, and looked after Moses until he was gone into the taber- nacle. And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, an<l the Lord talked with Moses. And all tlie peo|)le saw the cloudy jiillar stand at the tabernacle-door : and all the people rose uj) and wor- shipped, every one in his tent-door." This was neither the sanctuary of the tabernacle described in ch. xxv sq., which was not made till after the perfect restora- tion of the covenant (ch. xxxv sq.), nor another sanctu- ary that had come down from their forefathers and was used before the tabernacle proper was built (as Le Clerc, J. D. IMichaelis, and Rosenmliller supposed) ; but an or- dinary tent used for the occasion and purpose ( Keil, Comment, ad loc).
(2.) The Sinaitic tabernacle superseded the tent which had served for the transaction of public business probably from the beginning of the Exode. This was constructed by Bezaleel and Aholiab as a portable man- sion-house, guildhall, and cathedral, and set up on the first da)' of the first month in the second year after leav- ing Egypt. Of this alone we have accurate descriptions. It was the second of these sacred tents, which, as the most important, is called the tabernacle ^sar excellence. Moses was commanded by Jehovah to have it erected in the Arabian desert, by voluntary contributions of the Israelites, who carried it about with them in their mi- grations until after the conquest of Canaan, when it re- mained stationary for longer periods in various towns of Palestine (as below).
(3.) The Davidic tabernacle was erected by David, in Jerusalem, for the reception of the ark (2 Sam. vi, 12); while the old tabernacle remained to the days of Solo- mon at Gibeon, together with the brazen altar, as the place where sacrifices were ofifered (1 Chron. xvi, 39; 2 Chron. i, 3).
2. Varied Fortunes of the Sinaitic Tabernacle. (1.) In the Wilderness. — The outward history of the taber- nacle begins with Exod. xxv. It comes after the first great group of laws (ch. xix-xxiii), after the covenant with the people, after the vision of the divine glory (ch. xxiv). Eor forty days and nights Moses is in the mount. Before him there lay a problem, as measured by human judgment, of gigantic difficulty. In what fit symbols was he to embody the great truths without which the nation would sink into brutality? In what way could those symbols be guarded against the evil which he had seen in Egypt, of idolatry the most degrading V He was not left to solve the problem for himself. There rose before him, not without points of contact with pre- vious associations, yet in no degree formed out of them, the "pattern" of the tabernacle. The lower analogies of the painter and the architect seeing, with their in- ward eye, their completed work before the work itself begins, may help us to nnderstand how it was that the vision on the mount included all details of form, meas- urement, materials, the order of the ritual, the apparel of the priests. He is directed in his choice of the two chief artists, Bezaleel of the tribe of Judah, Aholiab of the tribe of Dan (ch. xxxi). The sin of the golden calf apparently postpones the execution. For a moment it seems as if the people were to be left without the Divine Presence itself — without any recognised symbol of it (xxxiii, 3). As in a transition period, the whole fut- ure depending on the patience of the people, on the in- tercession of their leader, a tent is pitched (probably that of Moses himself, which had hitherto been the head- quarters of consultation), outside the camp, to be pro- visionallv the tabernacle of meeting. There the mind