³⁶ Whenever the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, the Israelites would set out on each stage of their journey,^{(A) 37} but if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out until the day that it was taken up. ³⁸ For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud^[a] by night, before the eyes of all the house of Israel at each stage of their journey.^(B)

Departure from Sinai

¹¹ In the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month, the cloud lifted from over the tabernacle of the covenant.^(A)

¹² Then the Israelites set out by stages from the wilderness of Sinai, and the cloud settled down in the wilderness of Paran.