Numbers 9:13

13 Forsooth if any man is clean, and is not in the way, and nevertheless made not [the] pask, that man shall be destroyed from his peoples, for he offered not sacrifice to the Lord in his time set, or covenable (time); he shall bear his sin. (But if anyone is clean, and is not away, and nevertheless did not observe the Passover, that person shall be cut off from his people, for he did not offer an offering to the Lord at the set, or the appointed, time; he shall bear 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 in the second month, in the fourteenth day of the month, at eventide; with therf loaves and lettuces of the field he shall eat it. (in the second month, on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening; yea, they shall eat it with unleavened bread and field lettuce, or bitter herbs.)
12 They shall not leave anything thereof till to the morrowtide, and they shall not break a bone thereof; they shall keep all the custom of pask (they shall follow all the customs, or all the rites, of the Passover).
13 Forsooth if any man is clean, and is not in the way, and nevertheless made not [the] pask, that man shall be destroyed from his peoples, for he offered not sacrifice to the Lord in his time set, or covenable (time); he shall bear his sin. (But if anyone is clean, and is not away, and nevertheless did not observe the Passover, that person shall be cut off from his people, for he did not offer an offering to the Lord at the set, or the appointed, time; he shall bear his sin.)
14 Also if a pilgrim and a comeling is with you, make he pask to the Lord, by the ceremonies and the justifyings thereof; the same behest shall be with (all of) you, as well to a comeling as to a man born in the land. (And if a foreigner or a newcomer is with you, let him observe the Passover to the Lord, with all of its ceremonies and its customs, or its rites; the same law shall apply to all of you, to a newcomer, as well as to someone born in the land.)
15 Therefore in the day in which the tabernacle was raised, a cloud covered it; soothly as the likeness of fire was on the tent, that is, (the) tabernacle, from (the) eventide till to the morrowtide. (And on the day in which the Tabernacle was raised up, a cloud came and covered it; and a brightness like fire was over the Tent, that is, the Tabernacle, from the evening until the morning.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.