מִשְׁכַּן
mish.kan
habitation
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# מִשְׁכַּן (Mishkan): A Place of Dwelling The Hebrew word *mishkan* carries the fundamental meaning of "habitation" or dwelling place. With 139 occurrences throughout the Bible, it functions as a straightforward noun denoting a physical location where someone or something resides. The word's semantic field centers on the concept of permanent or established residence rather than temporary shelter, suggesting a space designated for sustained occupation. In biblical literature, *mishkan* achieves particular prominence through its application to sacred contexts. The frequency of its usage—appearing in nearly one-tenth of the Bible's total verses—indicates its theological importance within the text's framework. The word's consistency across its 139 occurrences suggests a stable semantic range: it consistently refers to dwelling or habitation without apparent shifts in meaning across different biblical periods or literary contexts. The prevalence of *mishkan* in the biblical text underscores how central the concept of a designated place of dwelling was to ancient Hebrew thought and practice. Whether applied to human habitation or sacred space, the term emphasizes the idea of an established, purposeful residence rather than random occupation or temporary arrangement. This linguistic preference reveals how the biblical writers understood dwelling—as something structured and intentional rather than incidental.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
139 total occurrences across the text — showing 50
For our fathers were unfaithful, and have done that which was evil in Yahweh our God’s sight, and have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of Yahweh, and turned their backs.
Job 18:21Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous. This is the place of him who doesn’t know God.”
Job 21:28For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’
Job 39:6whose home I have made the wilderness, and the salt land his dwelling place?
Psalms 78:60so that he abandoned the tent of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men,
Psalms 26:8Yahweh, I love the habitation of your house, the place where your glory dwells.
Psalms 43:3Oh, send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy hill, to your tents.
Psalms 46:4There is a river, the streams of which make the city of God glad, the holy place of the tents of the Most High.
Psalms 49:11Their inward thought is that their houses will endure forever, and their dwelling places to all generations. They name their lands after themselves.
Psalms 74:7They have burned your sanctuary to the ground. They have profaned the dwelling place of your Name.
Psalms 78:28He let them fall in the middle of their camp, around their habitations.
Psalms 84:1How lovely are your dwellings, Yahweh of Armies!
Psalms 87:2Yahweh loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.
Psalms 132:5until I find out a place for Yahweh, a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob.”
Psalms 132:7“We will go into his dwelling place. We will worship at his footstool.
Numbers 9:19When the cloud stayed on the tabernacle many days, then the children of Israel kept Yahweh’s command, and didn’t travel.
Song of Solomon 1:8If you don’t know, most beautiful among women, follow the tracks of the sheep. Graze your young goats beside the shepherds’ tents.
Isaiah 22:16‘What are you doing here? Who has you here, that you have dug out a tomb here?’ Cutting himself out a tomb on high, chiseling a habitation for himself in the rock!”
Isaiah 32:18My people will live in a peaceful habitation, in safe dwellings, and in quiet resting places,
Isaiah 54:2“Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your habitations; don’t spare: lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes.
Jeremiah 9:19For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, ‘How we are ruined! We are greatly confounded because we have forsaken the land, because they have cast down our dwellings.’ ”
Jeremiah 51:30The mighty men of Babylon have stopped fighting, they remain in their strongholds. Their might has failed. They have become as women. Her dwelling places are set on fire. Her bars are broken.
Jeremiah 30:18Yahweh says: “Behold, I will reverse the captivity of Jacob’s tents, and have compassion on his dwelling places. The city will be built on its own hill, and the palace will be inhabited in its own place.
Ezekiel 25:4therefore, behold, I will deliver you to the children of the east for a possession. They will set their encampments in you, and make their dwellings in you. They will eat your fruit and they will drink your milk.
Ezekiel 37:27My tent also will be with them. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
Habakkuk 1:6For, behold, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, that march through the width of the earth, to possess dwelling places that are not theirs.
Exodus 25:9According to all that I show you, the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all of its furniture, even so you shall make it.
Exodus 26:1“Moreover you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, with cherubim. You shall make them with the work of a skillful workman.
Exodus 26:6You shall make fifty clasps of gold, and couple the curtains to one another with the clasps. The tabernacle shall be a unit.
Exodus 26:7“You shall make curtains of goats’ hair for a covering over the tabernacle. You shall make eleven curtains.
Exodus 26:12The overhanging part that remains of the curtains of the tent—the half curtain that remains—shall hang over the back of the tabernacle.
Exodus 26:13The cubit on the one side and the cubit on the other side, of that which remains in the length of the curtains of the tent, shall hang over the sides of the tabernacle on this side and on that side, to cover it.
Exodus 26:15“You shall make the boards for the tabernacle of acacia wood, standing upright.
Exodus 26:17There shall be two tenons in each board, joined to one another: thus you shall make for all the boards of the tabernacle.
Exodus 26:18You shall make twenty boards for the tabernacle, for the south side southward.
Exodus 26:20For the second side of the tabernacle, on the north side, twenty boards,
Exodus 26:22For the far side of the tabernacle westward you shall make six boards.
Exodus 26:23You shall make two boards for the corners of the tabernacle in the far side.
Exodus 26:26“You shall make bars of acacia wood: five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle,
Exodus 26:27and five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the side of the tabernacle, for the far side westward.
Exodus 26:27and five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the side of the tabernacle, for the far side westward.
Exodus 26:30You shall set up the tabernacle according to the way that it was shown to you on the mountain.
Exodus 26:35You shall set the table outside the veil, and the lamp stand opposite the table on the side of the tabernacle toward the south. You shall put the table on the north side.
Exodus 27:9“You shall make the court of the tabernacle: for the south side southward there shall be hangings for the court of fine twined linen one hundred cubits long for one side.
Exodus 27:19All the instruments of the tabernacle in all its service, and all its pins, and all the pins of the court, shall be of bronze.
Exodus 35:11the tabernacle, its outer covering, its roof, its clasps, its boards, its bars, its pillars, and its sockets;
Exodus 35:15and the altar of incense with its poles, the anointing oil, the sweet incense, the screen for the door, at the door of the tabernacle;
Exodus 35:18the pins of the tabernacle, the pins of the court, and their cords;
Exodus 36:8All the wise-hearted men among those who did the work made the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, blue, purple, and scarlet. They made them with cherubim, the work of a skillful workman.
Exodus 36:13He made fifty clasps of gold, and coupled the curtains to one another with the clasps: so the tabernacle was a unit.