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 Exod 27:19

All the utensils of the tabernacle for every use refers to “all the equipment” (Good News Translation), “tools” (Durham), “accessories” (New Jerusalem Bible), and “fittings” (New American Bible) that must be made for the tabernacle (mishkan). Here the word mishkan seems to refer not only to the tent but also to the curtained enclosure. Good News Translation makes this explicit, with “and for the enclosure.” The word for utensils is a very broad term. Revised Standard Version translates it as “furniture” in 25.9. (See also the comment at 3.22.) Here, of course, it refers to everything except those accessories that were to be made of gold (25.29, 38; 26.5; and others). So Contemporary English Version has “The rest of the equipment.”

And all its pegs and all the pegs of the court introduces a new word, for nothing so far has been said about the pegs. These were the large “tent pegs” (New American Bible, New International Version), or “anchor-pegs” (Durham), that were needed to support the “Tent” (Good News Translation) as well as the curtained enclosure. They were evidently driven into the ground, and the supporting ropes or “cords” were tied to them. (See the comment at 35.18.) They were all “to be made of bronze” (Good News Translation). (See the comment on bronze at 25.3.) One may also say “the pegs for anchoring the sacred tent.”

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .