Exodus 40:17 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

Bible Comments

THE UPREARING OF THE TABERNACLE.

(17) On the first day of the month... the tabernacle was reared up. — The Tabernacle was so constructed as to be capable of being rapidly both put together and taken to pieces. The erection of the framework, and the stretching upon it of the fine linen and goats’-hair coverings, must have been the main difficulty. But the family of Abraham had been familiar with tent life from the time of its quitting Ur of the Chaldees to the descent into Egypt, and its location in Egypt on the borders of the desert, in close neighbourhood to various nomadic races, had kept up its familiarity with tents, their structure, and the most approved methods of pitching and striking them. Thus it is not surprisiug that the first erection was completed in less than a day.

Exodus 40:17

17 And it came to pass in the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, that the tabernacle was reared up.