Bible word study

Mishkan (Strong’s H4908): Meaning in the Bible

Mishkan (מִשְׁכָּן) is the Hebrew word numbered H4908 in Strong’s concordance of the Bible. Strong’s defines it as a residence (including a shepherd's hut, the lair of animals, figuratively, the grave; also the Temple); specifically, the Tabernacle (properly, its wooden walls). In the King James Bible it is translated dwelleth, dwelling (place), habitation, tabernacle, tent..

• Original wordמִשְׁכָּן
• Transliterationmishkân
• Pronunciationmish-kawn'
• Part of speechnoun (masculine) (n-m)
• Strong’s numberH4908
• LanguageHebrew

The full Strong’s definition

Derivation. from H7931;

How the King James Bible translates it

Where Mishkan appears in the Bible

In the King James Bible’s text tagged with Strong’s numbers, Mishkan (H4908) stands behind 139 English renderings in 129 verses across 14 of the 66 books. It is most frequent in Exodus (58), Numbers (42), Psalms (11).

How the King James Bible renders Mishkan, by count

• tabernacle114 of 139 (82 percent)
• dwellings6 of 139 (4 percent)
• tabernacles5 of 139 (4 percent)
• dwelling3 of 139 (2 percent)
• dwellingplaces3 of 139 (2 percent)
• habitation3 of 139 (2 percent)

Three places to read Mishkan

• Exodus 25:9 According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.
• Exodus 40:18 And Moses reared up the tabernacle, and fastened his sockets, and set up the boards thereof, and put in the bars thereof, and reared up his pillars.
• Numbers 16:9 Seemeth it but a small thing unto you, that the God of Israel hath separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himself to do the service of the tabernacle of the LORD, and to stand before the congregation to minister unto them?

Counts are made at build time from the King James text tagged with Strong’s numbers (eBible.org, public domain). Verses are read from the stored King James text, never typed.

Why the word matters

Every word the biblical writers chose carries weight. Studying Mishkan in the original Hebrew lets you read the passages where it appears more carefully, closer to what the first hearers understood, so the meaning is drawn from the text itself rather than from the English alone.

The lexical data on this page comes from the public-domain Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890), a Hebrew and Greek dictionary keyed to the King James Bible. It is a reference tool, not a settled verdict: no single word decides a doctrine, and meaning is finally shaped by how a word is used in its sentences. Read the passages themselves, prayerfully, and in full.

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