Meaning
"a tent, booth, tabernacle," is used of (a) tents as dwellings, Mat 17:4, Mar 9:5, Luk 9:33, Heb 11:9, AV, "tabernacles" (RV, "tents"); (b) the Mosaic tabernacle, Act 7:44, Heb 8:5, Heb 9:1 (in some mss.); Heb 9:8, Heb 9:21, termed "the tent of meeting," RV (i.e., where the people were called to meet God), a preferable description to "the tabernacle of the congregation," as in the AV in the OT; the outer part, Heb 9:2, Heb 9:6; the inner sanctuary, Heb 9:3; (c) the heavenly prototype, Heb 8:2, Heb 9:11, Rev 13:6, Rev 15:5, Rev 21:3 (of its future descent); (d) the eternal abodes of the saints, Luk 16:9, RV, "tabernacles" (AV, "habitations"); (e) the Temple in Jerusalem, as continuing the service of the tabernacle, Heb 13:10; (f) the house of David, i.e., metaphorically of his people, Act 15:16; (g) the portable shrine of the god Moloch, Act 7:43.
<2,,4636, skenos>
the equivalent of No. 1, is used metaphorically of the body as the "tabernacle" of the soul, 2Co 5:1, 2Co 5:4.
<3,,4638, skenoma>
occurs in Act 7:46, 2Pe 1:1-14; see HABITATION, No. 6.
<4,,4634, skenopegia>
properly "the setting up of tents or dwellings" (No. 1, and pegnumi, "to fix"), represents the word "tabernacles" in "the feast of tabernacles," Joh 7:2. This feast, one of the three Pilgrimage Feasts in Israel, is called "the feast of ingathering" in Exo 23:16, Exo 34:22; it took place at the end of the year, and all males were to attend at the "tabernacle" with their offerings. In Lev 23:34, Deu 16:13, Deu 16:16, Deu 31:10, 2Ch 8:13, Ezr 3:4 (cp. Neh 1:8-18), it is called "the feast of tabernacles" (or "booths," sukkoth), and was appointed for seven days at Jerusalem from the 15th to the 22nd Tishri (approximately October), to remind the people that their fathers dwelt in these in the wilderness journeys. Cp. Num 1:29-38, especially Num 1:29-38, for the regulations of the eighth or "last day, the great day of the feast" (Joh 7:37).
Note: For skenoo, "to spread a tabernacle over," Rev 7:15, RV, see DWELL, No. 9.
