Cloud Above the Tabernacle

(Book of Numbers 9:15 - 9:23)
From the day that the Tabernacle was erected, there settled over it a cloud, that, from dusk till dawn, would emit a fiery glow.  The Tabernacle  continued to present this appearance, covered by cloud during the day and luminous at night.  Whenever the cloud arose from the tent, then the Israelites would set out on their migration and wherever it settled, it was there that the Israelites made their camp.  It was thus at the command of Jehovah that they set out and at his command that they made camp.  As long as the cloud remained over the Tabernacle, the Israelites would stay encamped.  Even if the cloud remained over the Tabernacle for a considerable period of time, the Israelites would conform with the command of Jehovah and keep their camp.  Sometimes the cloud would stay over the Tabernacle for only a few days.  The people would, at Jehovah's behest, tarry but a few days and then, at his behest, break camp and move on.  Sometimes the cloud would stay only a night, so that in the morning, when it had lifted, the people would then set out on their journey.  Or, it might remain a day and a night, but whenever the cloud lifted, the people would set out.  Whether it was for two days, a month, or longer that the cloud would settle over the Tabernacle and cover it, during that time the Israelites would stay put and not travel.  Only when it lifted would they then resume their migration.  At Jehovah's command they made camp and at Jehovah's command they broke camp.  The people followed the dictates of Jehovah as communicated to them through Moses.

Notes
1. The migrations, or is it peregrinations, of the people are Israel are entirely controlled by Jehovah; they are utter slaves to his will.  Instead of communicating with Moses and telling him when he wants the people to break camp and move on or halt their journey, or giving him a map or something, Jehovah chooses to guide his wandering people through the movements of a "cloud."  The course of migratory journey thus seems whimsically fitful; the people move or stop according to however Jehovah may feel at the time.  At least whatever rhyme or reason there is to the itinerary it is not vouchsafed to the Israelites, even to Moses.  They all must unquestioningly obey.  The inconvenience of the people not knowing if they are to remain in a certain camp for a day or a month does not seem to be a factor, but then the wishes or comfort of his people have not thus far been a consideration of Jehovah.

2.  What this cloud is that settles over the Tabernacle and guides the migrations of the Israelites with its movements is a mystery.  Is it merely like a cloud, insubstantial, gaseous, vaporous, or does it have solidity?  Could it have been some sort of airship?  It has the appearance of fire at night, but this likely means that it glowed.  It may have been luminous at all times, but that its light would only be noticeable in darkness.  It seems to be suggested either that Jehovah dwelt in the cloud or that the cloud was his tangible form.  (It is generally accepted that spirits manifest themselves as balls of light and that vaporous, cloud-like spectres are merely incomplete physical materializations.)  He apparently spends all his time above the Tabernacle, which makes sense if he is the god solely of the Israelites, but not if he were really a universal god.