The portable sanctuary Israel built at Sinai and carried through the wilderness — a curtained tent within a courtyard, God's dwelling in the midst of the camp. Hebrew has two names for it: the MISHKAN, 'dwelling-place' (from shakhan, 'to dwell'), and the OHEL MO'ED, the 'tent of MEETING' — mo'ed being the 'appointed time/place,' the same word hung on the lights of Genesis 1:14 (see the dictionary). It is the appointed place of appointed meeting: 'there I will meet with you and speak with you' (Exodus 25:22). Exodus 25–40 gives its blueprint and building; it is finished and filled with the glory-cloud on the first day of the second year (Exodus 40:17, 34). Leviticus is then spoken entirely FROM it — 'Jehovah called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting' (1:1) — the offerings all brought 'to the door of the tent of meeting' (1:3). Its inmost room, the Holy of Holies, housed the ark and its atonement-cover (kapporet); the later Jerusalem Temple made its pattern permanent in stone.

Raising the tabernacle — an engraving by Pieter van Gunst (Amsterdam, c. 1700), from the same Dutch illustrated-Bible tradition as Pieter Mortier's Historie des Ouden en Nieuwen Testaments. The Dutch labels read: A, Het Heilige ('the Holy Place'); B, Het Heilige der Heilige ('the Holy of Holies'); C, the gold-plated boards (berderen) of the tabernacle; D, their silver sockets (voetstuk) — Exodus 26's building instructions rendered as an actual construction scene.

The inside of the tabernacle, engraved by James Neagle (printed for Samuel Bagster, Strand, London, early 19th century) — the covering of the outer pillars is folded back to expose the Holy Place, where the menorah, the altar of incense, and the table of showbread stand; the veil at the center is lifted to reveal the Holy of Holies, where the ark rested beneath the cloud of glory.