The Wilderness Years

Now on the day that the tabernacle was reared up, a cloud covered it. But from the evening there was over the tabernacle, as it were, the appearance of fire until the morning.

So it was always: by day the cloud covered it, and by night as it were the appearance of fire.

And when the cloud that covered the tabernacle was taken up, then the children of Israel marched forward: and in the place where the cloud stood still, there they camped.

At the commandment of the Lord they marched, and at his commandment they pitched the tabernacle. All the days that the cloud abode over the tabernacle, they remained in the same place:

And if it was so that it continued over it a long time, the children of Israel kept the watches of the Lord, and marched not,

For as many days soever as the cloud stayed over the tabernacle. At the commandment of the Lord they pitched their tents, and at his commandment they took them down.

If the cloud tarried from evening until morning, and immediately at break of day left the tabernacle, they marched forward: and if it departed after a day and a night, they took down their tents.

But if it remained over the tabernacle for two days or a month or a longer time, the children of Israel remained in the same place, and marched not: but immediately as soon as it departed, they removed the camp.

By the word of the Lord they pitched their tents, and by his word they marched: and kept the watches of the Lord according to his commandment by the hand of Moses.

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

Make thee two trumpets of beaten silver, wherewith thou mayest call together the multitude when the camp is to be removed.

And when thou shalt sound the trumpets, all the multitude shall gather unto thee to the door of the tabernacle of the covenant.

If thou sound but once, the princes and the heads of the multitude of Israel shall come to thee.

But if the sound of the trumpets be longer, and with interruptions, they that are on the east side, shall first go forward.

And at the second sounding and like noise of the trumpet, they who lie on the south side shall take up their tents. And after this manner shall the rest do, when the trumpets shall sound for a march.

But when the people is to be gathered together, the sound of the trumpets shall be plain, and they shall not make a broken sound.

And the sons of Aaron the priest shall sound the trumpets: and this shall be an ordinance for ever in your generations.

If you go forth to war out of your land against the enemies that fight against you, you shall sound aloud with the trumpets, and there shall be a remembrance of you before the Lord your God, that you may be delivered out of the hands of your enemies.

If at any time you shall have a banquet, and on your festival days, and on the first days of your months, you shall sound the trumpets over the holocausts, and the sacrifices of peace offerings, that they may be to you for a remembrance of your God. I am the Lord your God.

The second year, in the second month, the twentieth day of the month, the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle of the covenant.

And the children of Israel marched by their troops from the desert of Sinai, and the cloud rested in the wilderness of Pharan.

And the first went forward according to the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses.

The sons of Juda by their troops: whose prince was Nahasson the son of Aminadab.

In the tribe of the sons of Issachar, the prince was Nathanael the son of Suar.

In the tribe of Zabulon, the prince was Eliab the son of Helon.