How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel!
How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob! - a fine burst of admiration, expressed in highly poetical strains. All travelers describe the beauty which the circular range of Bedouin tents imparts to the desert. How magnificent, then, must have been the view, as seen from the heights of Abarim, of the immense camp of Israel extended over the subjacent plains.
And thy tabernacles, O Israel! х Mishkªnoteykaa (H4908), tabernacles.] This, as the second line in the parallelism, may be considered as a mere echo of the idea in the former [for the distinction between mishkan (H4908) and 'ohel (H168), the first signifying the external covering and the second the tent proper, see the notes at Exodus 30:32; Exodus 40:2; Exodus 40:6; 2 Samuel 7:6]. But the word in this line also denotes habitations, dwellings; and if we suppose the prophetic eye of the seer was able to penetrate so far into the future as to see a vision of Israel settled as a nation in Canaan, and all the people sitting under their vines and fig trees, he would behold their dwellings exhibiting a state of happiness and prosperity, the overflowing fullness of which was sustained by the special blessing of Yahweh.