The places where the Lord’s people met to celebrate the presence of their God are designated by a special vocabulary relating to the sacredness of the place and the actions performed there.
Yahweh’s worshipers were acutely aware of the sacredness of the place where they would meet with God. It is called the holy place (maqom qodesh, Ps. 24:3) or the sanctuary (miqdash, Exod. 25:8; Lev. 19:30; Num. 18:1; 1 Chron. 22:19; Ezek. 47:12) or simply the “holy” (qodesh, Exod. 29:30; Ps. 20:2); these terms are derived from the root qadash, which designates a thing set apart from common use. A frequent term for the place of worship is bet Yahveh, “house of Yahweh,” or “house of the Lord” (Exod. 23:19; 1 Sam. 1:7; 2 Kings 12:4; 1 Chron. 26:12; Pss. 23:6; 122:1; Isa. 2:2; Jer. 26:2; and others); sometimes we find the phrase “house of God” (bet ’Elohim, Gen. 28:17; Ps. 42:4; bet ha’Elohim, Judg. 18:31; 2 Chron. 5:14) or “house of our God” (bet ’Eloheinu, Neh. 10:34), or sometimes just “house” (Ezek. 47:1 nasb).
Both the temple erected by Solomon and the Mosaic sanctuary, which preceded it, could be designated as the house of Yahweh. The Mosaic sanctuary was called the tabernacle or dwelling (mishkan, Exod. 26:1; 36:8; 40:34–35; Num. 9:15), or sometimes “dwelling of the testimony” (mishkan ha‘edut, Exod. 38:21; Num. 1:50), because it contained the ark. The mishkan was covered by the tent (’ohel, Exod. 35:11), sometimes called the tent of meeting or “tent of appointment” (’ohel mo‘ed, Exod. 40:34–35; Lev 1:1; Num. 4:30), also “tent of the testimony” (’ohel ha‘edut, Num. 9:15; 18:2), so that both terms can refer to the movable sanctuary. The altar was in the court, or outer enclosure, of the dwelling (ḥatzer hammishkan, Exod. 27:9).
The sanctuary might also be referred to simply as the Lord’s tent (’ohel, Pss. 15:1; 27:5–6), his dwelling (ma‘on, Ps. 76:2), his “secret place” (seter, Pss. 27:5; 91:1), or his shelter (sukkah, Pss. 27:5; 76:2). After the building of Solomon’s temple, the sanctuary building proper was called the temple or palace (heikhal, Ps. 27:4; Isa. 6:1). However, the older terms continued in use. Zion, the site of the sanctuary from the time of David, was called the hill of the Lord (har Yahveh, Ps. 24:3) or his holy hill (har qodesh, Ps. 99:9). The psalmists speak poetically of the entire sacred precincts as the courts (ḥtzerot, Pss. 84:2, 10; 100:4) or gates (sha‘rim, Pss. 87:2; 100:4) of the Lord.
The inner area of the sanctuary, where the ark was placed, was called the Holy of Holies, or Most Holy Place (qodesh haqqodashim, Exod. 26:33–34); after the construction of the temple, it was also known as the dvir (1 Kings 6:19; Ps. 28:2), “innermost room” or throne room. The ark (’aron) itself was a movable chest containing the covenant commandments; while not a place of worship, it was thought of as the throne or footstool of Yahweh, and therefore represented the Lord’s dwelling in the midst of his people. It is variously termed the ark of the covenant (’aron habbrit, Num. 10:35; 2 Sam. 15:24), the ark of the testimony (’aron ha‘edut, Exod. 26:34), the ark of Yahweh (’aron Yahveh, Josh. 7:6; 1 Sam. 4:6), the ark of the Lord Yahweh (’aron ’Adonai Yahveh, 1 Kings 2:26), the ark of God (’aron ha’Elohim, 1 Sam. 4:11), and the ark of the covenant of God (’aron brit ha’Elohim, 2 Sam. 15:24–25). The lid or cover (kapporet, sometimes translated “mercy seat”) of the ark was more specifically the throne of Yahweh, who spoke to Moses from between the cherubim on either end of the cover (Exod. 25:17–22).
The Pentateuch mandates the centralization of the sacrificial and festive worship of the Lord in one place (Deut. 12:1–18). Eventually this place was identified as Jerusalem and Mount Zion, but prior to that time the sanctuary was periodically relocated to various local shrines. The local sanctuaries (bamah, high place) continued to be the site of regional festivals even after the erection of the temple, and the kings of Israel and Judah were taken to task for not removing them (1 Kings 15:14; 2 Kings 15:35; and others).