Numbers 11:24—Was the tabernacle outside the camp of Israel or inside it?

Problem: Numbers 2 places the tabernacle inside the camp, but here in Numbers 11:24 (cf. 12:4) it is said to be outside the camp.

Solution: It was both. The twelve tribes were camped around the tabernacle (Num. 2:3, 10, 18, 25), with a space between them and the tabernacle in the center (Num. 2:2). Hence, to get to the tabernacle they would have to go “outside” their camping area. And yet the tabernacle was literally “in the middle” of them.

This excerpt is from When Critics Ask: A Popular Handbook on Bible Difficulties (Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1992). © 2014 Norman Geisler and Thomas Howe. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Click here to purchase this book.