Bible Lexicons

Girdlestone's Synonyms of the Old TestamentGirdlestone's OT Synonyms

Tabernacle

The usual word for a tabernacle is Ohel (אהל ); which properly means a tent. Another word frequently rendered tent is Mishcan (משׁכן , Ass. maskamu), the ordinary word for a dwelling-place, [These words are found together in Exodus 26:7, the covering (Ohel) up on the tabernacle (Mishcan), and in other passages. The Mishcan is evidently the structure as a whole, regarded as the Shekinah or dwelling-place or God; whilst the Ohel was the awning of goat's hair. The word which the A. V. and R. V. perversely render the do or of the tabernacle is not a do or at all, but an opening or entrance.] which is found in , 'Besides the shepherds' tents.' Kubbah (קבה , Ass. qubbu), a dome or vault (compare the modern Arabic kubbet), is found in Numbers 25:8, where we read, 'He went after the man of Israel into the tent;' Sucah (סכה , Ass. sukku), a booth (whence the name Succoth), is used by David in 2 Samuel 11:11, where he says, 'The ark, and Israel, and Judah, abide in tents.' Machaneh (מחנה ) is a camp, or company, hence the name Mahanaim (two hosts). See Genesis 32:2; Genesis 32:7-8; Genesis 32:10; Genesis 32:21, and compare 1 Chronicles 12:22, 2 Chronicles 14:13; 2 Chronicles 31:2, . It is translated 'tent' in Numbers 13:19; 1 Samuel 17:53; 2 Kings 7:16; Zechariah 14:15; and also in 2 Chronicles 31:2, where it is applied in the plural form to the temple of God.

The LXX has various renderings for Ohel, but the most general are σκηνή, σκήνωμα, and οἰ̂κος. Mishcan, a dwelling-place, which stands for the same Greek word, is rendered tabernacle in about a hundred and twenty passages in the A. V.

Where the Feast of Tabernacles is referred to, Sucah is used. It probably means a place of shade or shelter, hence a booth, tent, or pavilion. The rendering cottage in Isaiah 1:8 is hardly accurate in Job 36:29 we read, 'Can any one understand the spreadings of the clouds, or the noise of his tabernacle?' Here reference is made to the heavens, either as God's place of shelter - H is hiding-place place - or to the clouds as a shade for the earth. [Compare its use in 2 Samuel 22:12, 'He made darkness pavilions round about him;' al as Psalms 18:11, 'H is pavillion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.'] The word is used again in Psalms 76:2, ' in Salem is his tabernacle, and his dwelling-place in Zion.' See also Isaiah 4:6.

In Amos 5:26, 'Ye have borne the tabernacle of Moloch,' there may be reference to a movable tent in which the images of false gods were placed. The marginal rendering, 'Siccuth your king,' is endorsed by the Masoretic punctuation, is accepted by Luther and by the R.V., and may be illustrated by the name of the Assyrian god Sakkut. But the quotation in St. Stephen's speech (Acts 7:43) follows the LXX, and is confirmed by the implied contrast with another tabernacle of which we read in Amos 9:11, where the same word is used, 'I will raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen down, and will close up the breaches thereof' With this passage may be compared the complaint of Jeremiah concerning the temple et Jerusalem: God 'hath violently taken away his tabernacle (σκήμωμα) as if it were a garden: he hath destroyed his places of assembly; the Lord hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion.' The word for 'tabernacle' here, Sak (שׂך ), though spelt differently, is from a cognate root. Some render it hedge or fence, but perhaps it signifies shelter or covering, and so is applicable to the 'tabernacle of David.'