Numbers 9:15–23

The Cloud Above the Tent

¹⁵On the day the Holy Tent, the Tent of the Agreement, was set up, a cloud covered it. From dusk until dawn the cloud above the Tent looked like fire. ¹⁶The cloud stayed above the Tent, and at night it looked like fire. ¹⁷When the cloud moved from its place over the Tent, the Israelites moved, and wherever the cloud stopped, the Israelites camped. ¹⁸So the Israelites moved at the Lord’s command, and they camped at his command. While the cloud stayed over the Tent, they remained camped. ¹⁹Sometimes the cloud stayed over the Tent for a long time, but the Israelites obeyed the Lord and did not move. ²⁰Sometimes the cloud was over it only a few days. At the Lord’s command the people camped, and at his command they moved. ²¹Sometimes the cloud stayed only from dusk until dawn; when the cloud lifted the next morning, the people moved. When the cloud lifted, day or night, the people moved. ²²The cloud might stay over the Tent for two days, a month, or a year. As long as it stayed, the people camped, but when it lifted, they moved. ²³At the Lord’s command the people camped, and at his command they moved. They obeyed the Lord’s order that he commanded through Moses.