Numbers 9:19

19 Even when the cloud lingered over the tabernacle for many days, the Israelites kept the LORD’s charge and did not set out.

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 Whenever the cloud was lifted from above the Tent, the Israelites would set out, and wherever the cloud settled, there the Israelites would camp.

18 At the LORD’s command the Israelites set out, and at the LORD’s command they camped. As long as the cloud remained over the tabernacle, they remained encamped.

19 Even when the cloud lingered over the tabernacle for many days, the Israelites kept the LORD’s charge and did not set out.

20 Sometimes the cloud remained over the tabernacle for only a few days, and they would camp at the LORD’s command and set out at the LORD’s command.

21 Sometimes the cloud remained only from evening until morning, and when it lifted in the morning, they would set out. Whether it was by day or by night, when the cloud was taken up, they would set out.