^9:15³⁰ On³¹ the day that the tabernacle was set up,³² the cloud³³ covered the tabernacle—the tent of the testimony³⁴—and from evening until morning there was³⁵ a fiery appearance³⁶ over the tabernacle. ^9:16This is the way it used to be continually: The cloud would cover it by day,³⁷ and there was a fiery appearance by night.

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Footnotes

30 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.
31 Heb “and/now on the day.”
32 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.
33 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 4:796). A number of modern scholars see the description as a retrojection from later, perhaps Solomonic times (see G. H. Davies, 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,” 90 [1971]: 15–30; G. E. Mendenhall, The Tenth Generation, 32–66, 209–13; and R. Good, “Cloud Messengers?” 10 [1978]: 436–37).
34 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.
35 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.
36 Heb “like the appearance of fire.”
37 The lacks the words “by day,” but a number of ancient versions have this reading (e.g., Greek, , ., Latin ).

In other versions

ESVEnglish Standard Version

On the day that the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony. And at evening it was over the tabernacle like the appearance of fire until morning. So it was always: the cloud covered it by day and the appearance of fire by night.

NIVNew International Version (2011)

On the day the tabernacle, the tent of the covenant law, was set up, the cloud covered it. From evening till morning the cloud above the tabernacle looked like fire. That is how it continued to be; the cloud covered it, and at night it looked like fire.

CSBChristian Standard Bible

On the day the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony, and it appeared like fire above the tabernacle from evening until morning. It remained that way continuously: the cloud would cover it, appearing like fire at night.

NLTNew Living Translation

On the day the Tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered it. But from evening until morning the cloud over the Tabernacle looked like a pillar of fire. This was the regular pattern—at night the cloud that covered the Tabernacle had the appearance of fire.

LEBThe Lexham English Bible

And on a day setting up the tabernacle, the cloud covered the tent of the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony; in the evening it was on the tabernacle as an appearance of fire until morning. So it was continually; the cloud would cover it and the appearance of fire by night.

KJV 1900King James Version

And on the day that the tabernacle was reared up the cloud covered the tabernacle, namely, the tent of the testimony: and at even there was upon the tabernacle as it were the appearance of fire, until the morning. So it was alway: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night.

Public Domain