Matthew Henry on Exodus 33:7-11
Here is, I. One mark of displeasure put upon them for their further humiliation: Moses took the tabernacle, not his own tent for his family, but the tent wherein he gave audience, heard causes, and enquired of God, the guild-hall (as it were) of their camp, and pitched it without, afar off from the camp (Exo 33:7), to signify to them that they had rendered themselves unworthy of it, and that, unless peace was made, it would return to them no more. God would thus let them know that he was at variance with them: The Lord is far from the wicked. Thus the glory of the Lord departed from the temple when it was polluted with sin, Eze 10:4, Eze 11:23. Note, It is a sign that God is angry when he re…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Exodus 33:8
all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door--Its removal produced deep and universal consternation; and it is easy to conceive how anxiously all eyes would be directed towards it; how rapidly the happy intelligence would spread, when a phenomenon was witnessed from which an encouraging hope could be founded.
Adam Clarke on Exodus 33:7
Moses took the tabernacle - אה האהל eth haohel, the Tent; not את המשכן eth hammishcan, the tabernacle, the dwelling-place of Jehovah, see Exo 36:11, for this was not as yet erected; but probably the tent of Moses, which was before in the midst of the camp, and to which the congregation came for judgment, and where, no doubt, God frequently met with his servant. This is now removed to a considerable distance from the camp, (two thousand cubits, according to the Talmudists), as God refuses to dwell any longer among this rebellious people. And as this was the place to which all the people came for justice and judgment, hence it was probably called the tabernacle, more properly the tent, of the…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Gill on Exodus 33:8
And it came to pass, when Moses went out of the tabernacle,.... For when he had pitched it he did not continue there; which shows it was not the tent or tabernacle he dwelt in, but whither he went to and fro, both to meet the Lord in it, and transact the affairs of the people, and especially the great affair now depending between God and them:
that all the people rose up: in reverence of him as their ruler, and the minister of God, and as their Mediator between God and them, though they had but lately thought and spoke very meanly and contemptibly of him, Exodus 32:1 see Job 29:8.
and stood every man at his tent door; none offering to go in, nor to sit down until he was gone into the taber…
