The east end of the courtyard, where the sunrise is, shall also be fifty cubits wide. The east end — the entrance end, where the sunrise is — is the same width as the west: 50 cubits. The orientation toward the sunrise is explicit in the naming of the east end: toward the sunrise. The tabernacle's entrance faces the rising sun — the light that greets the worshipper approaching from the east mirrors the light of the lampstand inside the sanctuary. The orientation toward the sunrise is also the orientation toward the horizon — the direction of promise, of what is coming, of the light that overcomes darkness. The tabernacle that faces east is oriented toward the same direction as Isaiah's vision of the glory returning from the east in Ezekiel 43:2.

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