7. Here Moses is down below, outside the camp to the end of chapter 34: 1, when he goes up again. His own intercourse with Jehovah, of the highest character, was here.
It is to be noted here that the word for tabernacle of the congregation is not the same as the tabernacle—it is 0-hel (tent) not misch'kan (habitation). Mish'kan is the dwellingplace, chapter 29: 46, l'shak'ni (that I may dwell). 0-hel is a tent, but the regular tabernacle was an 0-hel Mo-ed (tent of the congregation) as Moses' tent, was before it (the tabernacle) was made—a tent of appointed meeting. We have in chapters 39: 32 and 40: 2, the Mish'kan o-hel Mo-ed (tabernacle of the tent of the congregation). See Ex. 35:1111The tabernacle, his tent, and his covering, his taches, and his boards, his bars, his pillars, and his sockets, (Exodus 35:11), Mish'kan, eth o-ha-lo, etc. (tabernacle, his tent, etc.), see also chapter 36: 13, 14. The tabernacle of the tent of meeting, chapter 40: 34, 35 the cloud covers the 0-hel (tent), and the glory of the Lord filled the Mish'kan (habitation), and Moses could not enter into the 0-hel Mo-ed (tent of the congregation), for the cloud abode on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the Mish'kan (habitation). Moses could not enter, because the cloud sha-kan (abode) upon the 0-hel Mo-ed (tent of the congregation).
We have ka-hal (congregation), Mo-ed (assembly), and E-dah (appointed gathering). The first called together ekklesia; the next, meeting with God in an appointed place, see the first mention of it in this verse—hence a feast. The last more an appointed assembly of the people. The two last are from ya-ad (to appoint).