tabernacle (noun)

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “tabernacle” in English is translated in San Blas Kuna as “house of prayer that can be carried.” (Source: Ronald Ross)

In Bandi it is translated as “holy sitting place.” The “sitting place for the Bandi is where you live.” Therefore the tabernacle is the place where God lived. (Source: Becky Grossmann in this newsletter )

In Vidunda it is translated as “God’s tent” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext) and in Tibetan as gur mchog (གུར་​མཆོག) or “perfect tent” (source: gSungrab website )

In American Sign Language it is translated with with a sign for “tent” combined with a sign referring to the outer court surrounding the tent (see Exodus 27:9 and following). (Source: RuthAnna Spooner, Ron Lawer)


“Tabernacle” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor

See also tabernacle (verb) / dwell, festival of Tabernacles and ark of the covenant.

Translation commentary on 1 Chronicles 17:5

For I have not dwelt in a house …: The Hebrew particle rendered For most likely introduces the reason why there was no urgency to build a permanent structure for Yahweh. But since this particle is sometimes emphatic, it may function that way here; for example, Knoppers begins this verse with “Indeed, I have not resided in a house….”

Since the day I led up Israel to this day: It may be helpful to make explicit that God led Israel “from Egypt” (Good News Translation), since this is implied here (see the parallel text in 2 Sam 7.6). Many other modern versions make this explicit here (so Contemporary English Version, New International Version, New Century Version, Revised English Bible, Bible en français courant, La Bible du Semeur).

But I have gone from tent to tent and from dwelling to dwelling: The contrast between house and tent in this verse is significant. The idea is that the God of Israel had never lived in a permanent, fixed place such as David was proposing to build, but rather in a movable dwelling so that he could move from one location to another. In some languages it may be necessary to add qualifying terms such as “permanent” and “temporary” when the same word is used for house and tent.

From tent to tent and from dwelling to dwelling is literally “from tent to tent and from dwelling.” These words refer to the wandering in the wilderness (Num 33), and they may allude also to the fact that the Covenant Box was kept at various times in shrines at Gibeon, Shiloh, and Nob; that is, God did not stay in one place, but rather he moved with the Tabernacle as it moved from place to place. The wording in Hebrew here is strange and is interpreted in various ways: (a) Revised Standard Version understands “from dwelling” to mean from dwelling to dwelling (similarly Good News Translation, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy). It is also possible that a scribe accidentally omitted the second occurrence of the word dwelling. (b) Moffatt takes these final words as in apposition, saying “from tent to tent, with that as my Dwelling.” (c) New Revised Standard Version follows the Septuagint and 2 Sam 7.6 in reading “but I have lived in a tent and a tabernacle.” The intended sense is probably expressed in the NET Bible rendering: “I have lived in a tent that has been in various places.”

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Chronicles, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2014. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .