(2) On the first day of the first month.--The Israelites had quitted Egypt on the fourteenth day of the first month, Abib (Exodus 12:6). They had reached the wilderness of Sinai in the course of the third month, Sivan, and encamped in front of Sinai shortly after (Exodus 19:1-2). The two long absences of Moses in the Mount had occupied nearly three months, and were separated by an interval probably of several days. It must have been the sixth or seventh month before the work was commenced, and very late in the year--the eleventh or twelfth month--before it was accomplished. Hence, the new year was now approaching, and, as it was approaching, its first day was naturally chosen as most fit for the inauguration of the new structure.

The tabernacle of the tent of the congregation.--Rather, the tabernacle, the tent of meeting. The words mishhan and 'ohel are in apposition, not in regimen. (So also in Exodus 40:6.)

Verse 2. - On the first day of the first month. The first of Abib, or Nisan, the "New Year's Day" of Israel, coinciding nearly with the opening of the vernal equinox, a very suitable day for the inauguration of a place of worship. The tabernacle was to be set up first of all; then the tent was to be placed over it. See vers. 18, 19.

40:1-15 When a new year begins, we should seek to serve God better than the year before. In half a year the tabernacle was completed. When the hearts of numbers are earnest in a good cause, much may be done in a short time; and when the commandments of God are continually attended to, as the rule of working, all will be done well. The high-priesthood was in the family of Aaron till Christ came, and in Him, the substance of all these shadows, it continues for ever.On the first day of the first month,.... Which was the month Nisan, as the Targum of Jonathan expresses it; which was the month the children of Israel came out of Egypt, out of which they had now been a whole year, excepting fourteen days:

shalt thou set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation; the tabernacle, which had a tent or covering over it, to which the people were gathered at times for religious service.