Numbers 9:16

16 And so it was at all times: it was covered by the cloud, and by a light as of fire by night.

Numbers 9:16 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 9:16

So it was alway
Night and day, as long as the people of Israel were in the wilderness, see ( Exodus 13:21 Exodus 13:22 ) ( Nehemiah 9:19 ) ;

the cloud covered it [by day]:
the phrase, "by day", is not in the text, but is easily and necessarily supplied from ( Exodus 40:38 ) ; and as it is in the Targum of Jonathan, and in the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions, and which the following clause requires:

and the appearance of fire by night;
when as a cloud it could not be because of the darkness of the night; as in the daytime it could not be discerned as a body of fire or light, because of the light of the sun; but being seen under these different forms, was serviceable both by day and night, for the following purposes.

Numbers 9:16 In-Context

14 And if a man from another country is among you and has a desire to keep the Passover to the Lord, let him do as is ordered in the law of the Passover: there is to be the same rule for the man from another nation and for him who had his birth in the land.

15 And on the day when the House was put up, the cloud came down on it, on the Tent of witness; and in the evening there was a light like fire over the House till the morning.

16 And so it was at all times: it was covered by the cloud, and by a light as of fire by night.

17 And whenever the cloud was taken up from over the House, then the children of Israel went journeying on; and in the place where the cloud came to rest, there the children of Israel put up their tents.

18 At the order of the Lord the children of Israel went forward, and at the order of the Lord they put up their tents: as long as the cloud was resting on the House, they did not go away from that place.