Numbers 9:13

13 "But a man who is ritually clean and is not off on a trip and still fails to celebrate the Passover must be cut off from his people because he did not present God's offering at the set time. That man will pay for his sin.

Numbers 9:13 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 9:13

But the man that [is] clean
Free from any pollution by a dead body, or the like:

and is not in a journey;
in a distant country; for if he was on a journey in his own nation, he ought to return and attend the passover, which all the males from the several parts of the land were obliged unto; wherefore the Vulgate Latin version of ( Numbers 9:10 ) ; is a wrong one; "or in a way afar off in your nation"; for at whatsoever distance they were in their own nation, they were bound to appear:

and forbeareth to keep the passover;
the first passover in the first month, the month Nisan, wilfully, through negligence, or not caring to be at the expense and trouble of it, or on any pretence whatsoever: Ben Gersom interprets it of one that will not keep neither the first nor the second passover:

even the same soul shall be cut off from his people;
either be excommunicated from them, or cut off by death by the immediate hand of God:

because he brought not the offering of the Lord in his appointed
season:
this is the ground and reason of the resentment; it was a breach of the divine command, which required this offering; ingratitude to God, being a thank offering for a singular deliverance; and this aggravated by its not being brought at the appointed time, which was the fit ti me for it:

that man shall bear his sin;
be chargeable with the guilt of it, and bear the punishment of it; he on himself, as Aben Ezra notes, he, and he only; not his wife and family, for he being the head and master of the family, it lay upon him to provide the passover lamb for himself and his house.

Numbers 9:13 In-Context

11 But celebrate it on the fourteenth day of the second month at evening. Eat the lamb together with unraised bread and bitter herbs.
12 Don't leave any of it until morning. Don't break any of its bones. Follow all the procedures.
13 "But a man who is ritually clean and is not off on a trip and still fails to celebrate the Passover must be cut off from his people because he did not present God's offering at the set time. That man will pay for his sin.
14 "Any foreigner living among you who wants to celebrate God's Passover is welcome to do it, but he must follow all the rules and procedures. The same procedures go for both foreigner and native-born." The Cloud
15 The day The Dwelling was set up, the Cloud covered The Dwelling of the Tent of Testimony. From sunset until daybreak it was over The Dwelling. It looked like fire.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.