Bible Strands
Exodus 33:8
Then, whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would stand at the entrances to their own tents and watch Moses until he entered the tent.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrator records the Israelites' physical posture during Moses' routine departures to the tent pitched outside the camp. The moment occurs while the community waits for Moses to enter the designated place of inquiry.
The words — The verb יָק֙וּמוּ֙ (ya.Ku.mu) translates literally as "they arose" or "they stood," denoting the people's immediate physical response. The noun הָ/אֹ֔הֶל (ha./'O.hel) means "the tent," identifying the specific location Moses used for divine consultation.
The thread — The image of people standing at tent entrances recurs in Numbers 16:27, where witnesses stand at the dwellings of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Both passages deploy the standing posture to mark a moment of heightened divine attention or impending judgment.
Why it lands — The text describes a community observing a mediator cross a threshold into a sacred space. It asks the reader to note how deliberate physical stillness and focused attention function as recorded responses to divine encounter.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the tabernacle.
Cross-references
- Numbers 16:27 So they moved away from the dwellings of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Meanwhile, Dathan and Abiram had come out and stood at the entrances to their tents with their wives and children and infants.