Numbers 9:15

וּבְיוֹם הָקִים אֶת־הַמִּשְׁכָּן כִּסָּה הֶֽעָנָן אֶת־הַמִּשְׁכָּן לְאֹהֶל הָעֵדֻת וּבָעֶרֶב יִהְיֶה עַֽל־הַמִּשְׁכָּן כְּמַרְאֵה־אֵשׁ עַד־בֹּֽקֶר׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וּבְיוֹם֙ הָקִ֣ים אֶת־הַמִּשְׁכָּ֔ן כִּסָּ֤ה הֶֽעָנָן֙ אֶת־הַמִּשְׁכָּ֔ן לְאֹ֖הֶל הָעֵדֻ֑ת וּבָעֶ֜רֶב יִהְיֶ֧ה עַֽל־הַמִּשְׁכָּ֛ן כְּמַרְאֵה־אֵ֖שׁ עַד־בֹּֽקֶר׃

Greek (Septuagint)

Καὶ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ᾗ ἐστάθη ἡ σκηνὴ ἐκάλυψεν ἡ νεφέλη τὴν σκηνήν, τὸν οἶκον τοῦ μαρτυρίου· καὶ τὸ ἑσπέρας ἦν ἐπὶ τῆς σκηνῆς ὡς εἶδος πυρὸς ἕως πρωί.

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Igitur die qua erectum est tabernaculum, operuit illud nubes. A vespere autem super tentorium erat quasi species ignis usque mane.

Spanish

El día en que se levantó el tabernáculo, la nube cubrió el tabernáculo, la Tienda del Testimonio. Al atardecer, la nube sobre el tabernáculo tenía una apariencia de fuego que duraba hasta la mañana.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y el día que el tabernáculo fué levantado, la nube cubrió el tabernáculo sobre la tienda del testimonio; y á la tarde había sobre el tabernáculo como una apariencia de fuego, hasta la mañana.

English

On the day that the tabernacle, the Tent of the Testimony, was set up, the cloud covered it and appeared like fire above the tabernacle from evening until morning.

✦ What the text says

Summary

Numbers 9:15 describes the day the tabernacle was erected: the cloud covered the tabernacle (called "the tent of the testimony"), and from evening until morning it had the appearance of fire over the structure.

Key words

ha.Kim ("set up", H6965I) — hiphil infinitive of the causative verb, meaning "to cause to stand" or "to erect"; here it marks the temporal clause "on the day of the erecting of the tabernacle."
ki.Sah ("it covered", H3680) — piel perfect (intensive stem, completed action) of the verb for covering; the intensive form suggests a thorough or complete covering.
'a.Nan ("cloud", H6051) — masculine singular noun, the subject of the covering action.
'O.hel ("tent of", H0168G) — construct form ("tent of"), linking to 'e.Dut ("testimony", H5715), forming the phrase "tent of the testimony," a designation for the tabernacle structure.
yih.Yeh ("it was", H1961) — qal imperfect of the verb "to be," here denoting a state that continued through the night, "it was" or "it continued to be."

What the text says

The verse opens with a temporal construction: u.ve.yOm ("and on the day") followed by the infinitive ha.Kim ("the setting up of") plus the object marker and ha.mmish.Kan ("the tabernacle"). This infinitive construction functions as a time clause — "on the day of the setting-up of the tabernacle" — without needing a separate subject or finite verb for the erecting itself.

The main clause follows: ki.Sah he.'a.Nan et-ha.mmish.Kan ("the cloud covered the tabernacle"), using the piel (intensive) perfect of ki.Sah, indicating a completed, thorough covering action. The phrase le.'O.hel ha.'e.Dut ("for/of the tent of the testimony") stands in apposition or clarification, identifying the mish.Kan ("tabernacle", H4908) as the same structure called "tent of the testimony," using the construct chain 'O.hel + 'e.Dut.

The second half shifts temporal focus to evening (va.'E.rev) with the qal imperfect yih.Yeh ("it was" / "it continued to be"), a verb form that in Biblical Hebrew often expresses ongoing or habitual states rather than a single completed action — here describing the nightly recurrence of the phenomenon: something over ('al) the tabernacle like the appearance of fire (ke.mar.'eh-'esh) until morning ('ad-Bo.ker). The construct mar.'eh-'esh ("appearance of fire") indicates that the text describes a visual likeness, not fire itself as substance.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ha.Kim ("set up") with a relative clause ᾗ ἐστάθη ("in which it was set up"), converting the Hebrew infinitive construction into a finite passive verb. The LXX also renders le.'O.hel ha.'e.Dut as τὸν οἶκον τοῦ μαρτυρίου ("the house of the testimony"), using οἶκος ("house") rather than a term for "tent," where the Hebrew 'O.hel specifically means "tent." The Vulgate similarly shifts structure, using a relative clause ("die qua erectum est tabernaculum") and separates the evening clause with "autem" ("however/but"), not present as a distinct conjunction in the Hebrew u.va.'E.rev ("and in the evening").

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.