Charles Ellicott Commentary Exodus 33:7-11

"Now Moses used to take the tent and to pitch it without the camp, afar off from the camp; and he called it, The tent of meeting. And it came to pass, that every one that sought Jehovah went out unto the tent of meeting, which was without the camp. And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the Tent, that all the people rose up, and stood, every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the Tent. And it came to pass, when Moses entered into the Tent, the pillar of cloud descended, and stood at the door of the Tent: and [Jehovah] spake with Moses. And all the people saw the pillar of cloud stand at the door of the Tent: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man at his tent door. And Jehovah spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his minister Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the Tent." — Exodus 33:7-11 (ASV)

MOSES ESTABLISHES A TEMPORARY TABERNACLE.

Moses, having experienced the blessedness of solitary communion with God during the forty days spent on Sinai, felt now, as he had never felt before, the need for a “house of God,” where he might retire for prayer and meditation, secure of being undisturbed. Months would necessarily elapse before the Tabernacle could be constructed according to the pattern which he had seen in the mount.

During this interval he determined to make use of one of the existing tents as a “house of prayer,” severing it from the others, and giving it the name “Tent of Meeting,” which was afterwards appropriated to the Tabernacle. It would seem that he selected his own tent for the purpose—probably because it was the best that the camp provided—and contented himself with another. God graciously approved his design, and descended in the cloudy pillar on the tent each time that Moses entered it.