The Lord said to Moses, “On the first day of the first month, you will set up the Tent of the Lord’s presence. Place it in the Covenant Box containing the Ten Commandments with the curtain in front and the table with its equipment on it, the lampstand and its lamps. Next, put the altar of gold with its sweet incense in front of the Covenant Box while hanging up the curtain at the Tent’s entrance. Put the altar for burning offerings in front as well. Also, place the washbasin and fill it up with water between the Tent and altar with the surrounding enclosure for the curtain at its entrance. Dedicate the Tent and its equipment by anointing it with oil that is sacred and most holy. Next, do the same with the altar and its equipment, and it will be most holy as well. Lastly, do the same thing with the washbasin and its base.
Bring Aaron and his sons to the Tent’s entrance for their bath ritual. Dress Aaron in his fine priestly garments and anoint and consecrate him, that he may minister to Me as priest. Bring his sons to put their shirts on. Anoint them, like you have anointed their father, so that they can minister to Me as priest. The anointing will make them priests for all time to come.” Moses did exactly as the Lord had commanded him. On the first day of the first month near the second year after the people had left Egypt, the Tent of the Lord’s presence was set. Moses worked on its bases and frames by attaching the crossbars and posts. He spread the Tent’s covering with the outer covering that was over it. He then took two stone tablets and placed them in the Covenant Box with the poles in the Box’s rings and closed the lid on it. Then he placed the Covenant Box in the Tent and hung up the curtain with screening off the Covenant Box, as the Lord had commanded Moses. He put the Tent’s table on the outside curtain’s north side and placed the bread that was being offered to the Lord. Next, Moses put the lampstand on the south side of the Tent opposite the table and lit up its lamps. He put the gold altar in the Tent in the curtain’s front and burned the sweet incense. He hung the curtain at the Tent’s entrance and placed the burnt offerings on the altar with sacrifices for the burnt and grain offerings. He put the washbasin between the Tent and altar with water in it. Moses, Aaron and his sons washed their hands and feet whenever they would come to the altar or the Tent. Moses put in the Tent’s enclosure and the altar and hung the curtain near the entrance of the enclosure. The work was finished by him.
Then the cloud covered the Tent with its dazzling light being entered by the Lord’s presence. Because of this, Moses wouldn’t be allowed to enter the Tent. The Israelites set up camp to another place only when the cloud ascended from the Tent. They wouldn’t move to another place outside the camp when the cloud stayed there. They couldn’t see the cloud of the Lord’s presence beside the Tent during the day with a burning fire during the night in the sight of the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.