Numbers 16:24

Get you up from about the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram — It is not easy to determine what is the meaning of the word mishkan (tabernacle) in this and in the 27th verse. The word, in the singular number, commonly denotes the tabernacle of the congregation — i.e., the boarded erection which was covered by the ohel, or tent. The word means simply a “dwelling-place,” and it may denote in this and in the 27th verse a rival tabernacle which had been erected by Korah and the other conspirators; or it may denote, in a collective sense, the tent of Korah, which may have been contumaciously pitched near that of the Reubenites, and also the tents of Dathan and Abiram, which were in proximity to those of the Kohathites, but further removed from the Tabernacle. The substitution of the word “tents” in Numbers 16:26, in which Moses delivers to the people the command contained in Numbers 16:24, seems to favour the latter of these explanations.