EXODUS CHAPTER 33
— 7. Here Moses is down below, outside the camp to the end of chapter 34: 1, when he goes up again. His own intercourse with Jehovah, of the highest character, was here.
[p. 235] It is to be noted here that the word for tabernacle of the congregation is not the same as the tabernacle — it is O-hel (tent) not misch’kan (habitation). Mish’kan is the dwelling-place, chapter 29: 46, l’shak’ni (that I may dwell). O-hel is a tent, but the regular tabernacle was an O-hel Mo-ed (tent of the congregation) as Moses’ tent, was before it (the tabernacle) was made — a tent of appointed meeting. We have in chapters 39: 32 and 40: 2, the Mish’kan o-hel Mo-ed (tabernacle of the tent of the congregation). See Exodus 35:11, Mish’kan, eth o-ha-lo, etc. (tabernacle, his tent, etc.), see also chapter 36: 13, 14. The tabernacle of the tent of meeting, chapter 40: 34, 35; the cloud covers the O-hel (tent), and the glory of the Lord filled the Mish’kan (habitation), and Moses could not enter into the O-hel Mo-ed (tent of the congregation), for the cloud abode on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the Mish’kan (habitation). Moses could not enter, because the cloud sha-kan (abode) upon the O-hel Mo-ed (tent of the congregation).
We have ka-hal (congregation), Mo-ed (assembly), and E-dah (appointed gathering). The first called together ekklesia; the next, meeting with God in an appointed place, see the first mention of it in this verse — hence a feast. The last more an appointed assembly of the people. The two last are from ya-ad (to appoint).
— 12, 13. Compare Colossians 1:9, 10, “Thy way”, etc.