Numbers 9:10-20

10 "Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, 'If any one of you or of your generations becomes unclean because of a dead person, or is on a distant journey, he may, however, observe the Passover to the LORD.

11 'In the second month on the ¹fourteenth * day at twilight, they shall observe it; they ²shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

12 'They ³shall leave none of it until morning, ⁴nor break a bone of it; according to all the statute of the Passover they shall observe it.

13 '⁵But the man who is clean and is not on a journey, and yet neglects to observe the Passover, that person shall then be cut off from his people, for he did not present the offering of the LORD at its appointed time. That man ⁶will bear his sin.

14 '⁷If an alien sojourns among you and observes the Passover to the LORD, according to the statute of the Passover and according to its ordinance, so he shall do; you shall have ⁸one statute, both for the alien and for the native of the land.' "

The Cloud on the Tabernacle

15 Now on ⁹the day that the tabernacle was erected ¹⁰the cloud covered the tabernacle, the ¹¹tent of the testimony, and ¹²in the evening it was like the appearance of fire over the tabernacle, until morning.

16 So it was continuously; ¹³the cloud would cover it by day, and the appearance of fire by night.

17 ¹⁴Whenever the cloud was lifted from over the tent, afterward * the sons of Israel would then set out; and in the place where * the cloud settled down, there the sons of Israel would camp.

18 At the command of the LORD the sons of Israel would set out, and at the command of the LORD they would camp; ¹⁵as long * as the cloud settled over the tabernacle, they remained camped.

19 Even when the cloud lingered over the tabernacle for many days, the sons of Israel would keep the LORD'S charge and not set out.

20 If sometimes the cloud remained a few days over the tabernacle, ¹⁶according to the command of the LORD they remained camped. Then according to the command of the LORD they set out.

Read Chapter Compare

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.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 16

1. 2 Chronicles 30:2, 15
2. Exodus 12:8
3. Exodus 12:10
4. Exodus 12:46; John 19:36
5. Genesis 17:14; Exodus 12:15, 47
6. Numbers 5:31
7. Exodus 12:48
8. Exodus 12:49; Leviticus 24:22; Num 15:15, 16, 29
9. Exodus 40:2, 17
10. Exodus 40:34
11. Numbers 17:7
12. Exodus 13:21, 22
13. Exodus 40:34; Nehemiah 9:12
14. Exodus 40:36-38; Numbers 10:11, 12
15. 1 Corinthians 10:1
16. Psalms 48:14; Proverbs 3:5, 6

Footnotes 10

[a]. Lit "soul"
[b]. Or "ceases"
[c]. Lit "soul"
[d]. Or "would observe"
[e]. Lit "mouth"
[f]. Lit "mouth"
[g]. Lit "and the"
[h]. Lit "it was that"
[i]. Lit "mouth"
[j]. Lit "mouth"