Numbers 9:10-20

10 "Speak to the {Israelites}, saying, 'Each man that is unclean {by a dead person} or [is] on a far journey, you or your {descendants}, he will observe the Passover of Yahweh.
11 On the second month on the fourteenth day {at twilight} they will observe it; they will eat it with unleavened bread and bitter plants.
12 They will leave none of it until morning, and they will not break a bone in it; they will observe it according to every decree of the Passover.
13 But the man who [is] clean and not on a journey, and he fails to observe the Passover, that person will be cut off from the people because he did not present the offering of Yahweh on its appointed time. That man will bear his guilt.
14 If an alien dwells with you he will observe the Passover of Yahweh according [to] the decree of the Passover and according [to] its stipulation; thus you will have one decree for you, for the alien and for the native of the land.'"

The Cloud and the Fire

15 And on a day setting up the tabernacle, the cloud covered the tent of the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony; in the evening it was on the tabernacle as an appearance of fire until morning.
16 So it was continually; the cloud would cover it and the appearance of fire [by] night.
17 [Whenever] the cloud lifted up from on the tent, after that the {Israelites} would set out, and in the place where the cloud dwelled, there the {Israelites} camped.
18 On the {command of Yahweh} the {Israelites} would set out, and on the {command of Yahweh} they encamped; all the days that the cloud dwelled on the tabernacle they encamped.
19 And when the cloud prolonged on the tabernacle many days the {Israelites} kept the kept requirement of Yahweh and did not set out.
20 When the cloud {remained} a number of days on the tabernacle, on the {command of Yahweh} they encamped; and on the {command of Yahweh} they set out.

Numbers 9:10-20 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 9

In this chapter the command for keeping the passover is repeated, and it was accordingly kept, Nu 9:1-5; but some persons being defiled and disqualified for observing it, Moses inquires of the Lord, on their solicitation, what should be done in such a case, Nu 9:6-8; when it was ordered to be kept by such, and those on journeys, on the fourteenth day of the second month, but not by others, who were to observe it according to its first appointment, Nu 9:9-14; and an account is given of the appearance of the cloud by day, and fire by night, upon the tabernacle, which directed the children of Israel when to journey, and when to pitch their tents, Nu 9:15-23.

Footnotes 14

  • [a]. Literally "sons/children of Israel"
  • [b]. Literally "by a life of a person"
  • [c]. Literally "generations"
  • [d]. Literally "between the two evenings"
  • [e]. Hebrew "it will be"
  • [f]. Literally "sons/children of Israel"
  • [g]. Literally "sons/children of Israel"
  • [h]. Literally "mouth of Yahweh"
  • [i]. Literally "sons/children of Israel"
  • [j]. Literally "mouth of Yahweh"
  • [k]. Literally "sons/children of Israel"
  • [l]. Literally "it was there"
  • [m]. Literally "mouth of Yahweh"
  • [n]. Literally "mouth of Yahweh"
Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.