Charles Ellicott Commentary Numbers 3:25

"And the charge of the sons of Gershon in the tent of meeting shall be the tabernacle, and the Tent, the covering thereof, and the screen for the door of the tent of meeting," — Numbers 3:25 (ASV)

In the tabernacle of the congregation.—Better, in the tent of meeting. It is important to distinguish between the ohel—that is, the tent—and the mishkan—that is, the tabernacle, which was the building of shittim wood with its curtains that was within the tent.

The word ohel, where it occurs in the second place in this verse, evidently means the outer covering, as in Exodus 26:7, where the passage may be literally rendered this way: And you shall make curtains (or hangings) of goats’ (hair) for an ohel upon (or over) the mishkan.

The covering of it.—The mikseh (covering) appears to include the two coverings described in Exodus 26:14—namely, the covering of rams’ skins and that of badgers’ skins or seals’ skins.

The hanging for the door of the tabernacle of the congregation—that is, for the entrance or opening of the tent of meeting. This hanging was of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine-twined linen, and was hung at the entrance—that is, the eastern or open end of the tent (Exodus 26:36).

The word rendered door (pethach, not deleth) means an opening. At a later period, when the Tabernacle was at Shiloh, it had doors (1 Samuel 3:15). Both words occur in 1 Kings 6:31: And for the entering (or at the opening) of the oracle he made doors. etc.