A residence (including a shepherd's hut , the lair of animals, figuratively, the grave ; also the Temple ); specifically, the Tabernacle (properly, its wooden walls)
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מִשְׁכָּן (mishkan) means dwelling place or habitation and most often names Israel's portable tabernacle. Exodus 25:8 gives the purpose of the sanctuary so that God may dwell among Israel, while Exodus 25:9 uses H4908 for the tabernacle pattern.
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Full entry for מִשְׁכָּן (H4908) · Open the biblical lexicon
מִשְׁכָּן (mishkan) means dwelling place or habitation and most often names Israel's portable tabernacle. Exodus 25:8 gives the purpose of the sanctuary so that God may dwell among Israel, while Exodus 25:9 uses H4908 for the tabernacle pattern.
The BSB source-word alignment has 139 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include the tabernacle (41), of the tabernacle (31), for the tabernacle (11), to the tabernacle (5), tabernacle (4).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Exodus 25:9. Its strongest book concentrations include Exodus (58), Numbers (42), Psalms (11), 1 Chronicles (6).
מִשְׁכָּן (mishkan) means dwelling place or habitation and most often names Israel's portable tabernacle. Exodus 25:8 gives the purpose of the sanctuary so that God may dwell among Israel, while Exodus 25:9 uses H4908 for the tabernacle pattern. The adjacent verses belong together theologically, but only the latter is a direct occurrence of this noun.
Exodus devotes extensive attention to the mishkan's curtains, frames, furnishings, assembly, priestly service, and movement. When the work is completed in Exodus 40, the cloud covers the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord fills the tabernacle, so Moses cannot enter. The text presents gracious divine presence together with holy boundaries; the structure neither manufactures nor contains God.
The noun also appears for Israel's dwellings, poetic habitations, and promised divine dwelling. Ezekiel 37:27 speaks of God's dwelling place with a restored people within a covenant promise. John 1:14, Ephesians 2, and Revelation 21 develop divine-dwelling themes, but the Greek vocabulary and each passage's claims must be studied directly. The later word Shekinah is useful reception history, not a separate presence-substance found in the Hebrew text.
Mishkan names a dwelling and becomes the standard term for the wilderness tabernacle. Its narrative significance is that the Lord chooses to dwell among Israel through an ordered covenant arrangement marked by access, holiness, sacrifice, movement, and glory.
Israel is to make the tabernacle and furnishings according to the pattern shown to Moses.
The cloud covers the tent of meeting and the Lord's glory fills the completed tabernacle.
The covenant blessing promises God's dwelling among Israel without abhorring the people.
Balaam poetically praises Jacob's tents and Israel's dwellings in the plural.
God promises that his dwelling place will be with the restored people in an everlasting covenant setting.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Dwelling-place connoting God's chosen residence among His people, from tabernacle to temple.
Dwelling-place connoting God's chosen residence among His people, from tabernacle to temple.
a residence (including a shepherd's hut, the lair of animals, figuratively, the grave; also the Temple); specifically, the Tabernacle (properly, its wooden walls) BDB: dwelling-place Usage: dwelleth, dwelling (place), habitation, tabernacle, tent.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 139 lexical occurrence verses.
מִשְׁכָּן is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Mishkan helps a congregation see divine presence as graciously given and carefully ordered. Israel does not invent a structure that brings God under human control; the Lord supplies the pattern, appoints the service, sets boundaries, and fills the completed tabernacle with glory. Exodus 25:8 states the purpose, and verse 9 begins the direct mishkan instructions.
That distinction is small but important for honest word study. The tabernacle also travels, placing God's covenant dwelling in the midst of a pilgrim people rather than tying presence to their engineering achievement. A sermon can trace later dwelling themes toward Christ, the Spirit's people, and new creation while keeping them as canonical developments. It should avoid romanticizing the building, erasing sacrifice and holiness, or treating later Shekinah terminology as though it were a separate biblical substance contained in the noun.
Exod.40.34
Mishkan derives from the dwelling root H7931. It can name the tabernacle or another habitation. Ohel moed, tent of meeting, is a related expression but should not be treated as the same lexeme.
John 1:14, Ephesians 2:22, and Revelation 21:3 develop God's dwelling with humanity. Their Greek terms and immediate claims govern the fulfillment synthesis.