John Gill Commentary Exodus 40:37

"but if the cloud was not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up." — Exodus 40:37 (ASV)

But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed
not
Even if it continued so two days, or a month, or a year, as very probably it sometimes did; which will in some measure account for the long continuance of the Israelites in the wilderness, see (Numbers 9:22)

till the day that it was taken up :
or, "of its ascent" ^F6 , being "lifted up", or going upwards, higher in the air, right over the tabernacle, or perhaps more to the front of it; the word used before in this and the preceding verse has the signification of ascending upwards.

---

FOOTNOTES:

• F6: (wtleh) "sustolli ejus", Montanus.