The rich fabrics of delicate workmanship forming the walls and roof of the Tabernacle were protected by coarser hangings of goats' hair, and these in turn by a covering of skins. The structure as completed is referred to in the scripture sometimes as the Tent of the {26} Congregation and at others as the Tabernacle of the Congregation; the former expression occurs thirteen times, the latter one hundred and thirty-three times; yet notwithstanding this difference, the original in each case was _Ohel Moed_, the best authenticated translation of which is the Tent of Meeting. Let it not be supposed, however, that this means in the ordinary sense a meeting-house, for the meeting here expressed is not that of a concourse of worshippers, but the place of communion between God and His Priesthood. The Tent of Meeting, or the Tabernacle of the Congregation, in Israel, was the Lord's tent wherein He met the authorized representatives of His people. On the first day of the second year following Israel's exodus from Egypt, the Tabernacle was set up for the first time, and all the sacred furniture was disposed according to the direct commands of the Lord. The veil was hung, and the place was consecrated as a most holy spot, ineffably sacred as the dwelling place of Jehovah. Then, even as on Sinai a cloud had shrouded the temporary abiding place of God, so was it with the Tabernacle: "Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. "And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. "And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys: "But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up. "For the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by {27} day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys."[12] The all-pervading and all-controlling thought in the erection of this portable sanctuary was that of expressing the close association between Jehovah and His people. The people were to consider themselves specifically the people of God, and amongst them should be His dwelling, surpassing in a transcendent degree the presence of the gods of wood and stone housed among the idolatrous nations with whom Israel had to contend. This thought was expressed in the earliest commandment respecting the building of the Tabernacle: "And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them."[13]