Numbers 9:19

19 Sometimes the cloud stayed over the Tent for a long time, but the Israelites obeyed the Lord and did not move.

Numbers 9:19 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 9:19

And when the cloud tarried long upon the tabernacle many
days
Or years, for days are sometimes put for years, and in some places the cloud tarried several years; or however, if it stayed but a month or a year in any place, as in ( Numbers 9:22 ) ;

then the children of Israel kept the charge of the Lord, and journeyed
not;
they not only kept watching when it would move, or set sentinels for that purpose to observe it, but they kept the charge, order, or commandment, which the tarrying of the cloud was a token of, and did not attempt to proceed in their journey until they had an intimation so to do by its motion; and all this while, likewise, the tabernacle being up, they observed all the precepts and ordinances of the Lord in the service of it.

Numbers 9:19 In-Context

17 When the cloud moved from its place over the Tent, the Israelites moved, and wherever the cloud stopped, the Israelites camped.

18 So the Israelites moved at the Lord's command, and they camped at his command. While the cloud stayed over the Tent, they remained camped.

19 Sometimes the cloud stayed over the Tent for a long time, but the Israelites obeyed the Lord and did not move.

20 Sometimes the cloud was over it only a few days. At the Lord's command the people camped, and at his command they moved.

21 Sometimes the cloud stayed only from dusk until dawn; when the cloud lifted the next morning, the people moved. When the cloud lifted, day or night, the people moved.