Numbers 9:15-23

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.
21 When the cloud {remained} from evening until morning, and the cloud lifted up in the morning, they would set out, or [if it remained] in the daytime and [at] night, [when] the cloud lifted up they set out.
22 When [it was] two days, a month, {or a year} that the cloud prolonged to dwell on the tabernacle, the {Israelites} encamped, and they did not set out; when it lifted up they set out.
23 On the {command of Yahweh} they encamped, and on the {command of Yahweh} they set out. They kept the requirement of Yahweh, on the {command of Yahweh} in the hand of Moses.

Numbers 9:15-23 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 17

  • [a]. Hebrew "it will be"
  • [b]. Literally "sons/children of Israel"
  • [c]. Literally "sons/children of Israel"
  • [d]. Literally "mouth of Yahweh"
  • [e]. Literally "sons/children of Israel"
  • [f]. Literally "mouth of Yahweh"
  • [g]. Literally "sons/children of Israel"
  • [h]. Literally "it was there"
  • [i]. Literally "mouth of Yahweh"
  • [j]. Literally "mouth of Yahweh"
  • [k]. Literally "it was there"
  • [l]. Literally "or days"
  • [m]. Literally "sons/children of Israel"
  • [n]. Literally "mouth of Yahweh"
  • [o]. Literally "mouth of Yahweh"
  • [p]. Literally "mouth of Yahweh"
  • [q]. Or "through Moses"
Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.