Numbers 9:19

19 And when the cloud tarried long upon the tabernacle many days, then the sons of Israel kept the charge of the LORD and did not journey.

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 And when the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, then after that the sons of Israel journeyed; and in the place where the cloud abode, there the sons of Israel pitched their tents.

18 At the commandment of the LORD the sons of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the LORD they pitched camp; as long as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle, they rested.

19 And when the cloud tarried long upon the tabernacle many days, then the sons of Israel kept the charge of the LORD and did not journey.

20 And so it was, when the cloud was a determined number of days upon the tabernacle, according to the commandment of the LORD they camped, and according to the commandment of the LORD they journeyed.

21 And so it was that when the cloud remained from evening unto the morning, and in the morning the cloud was taken up, then they journeyed; or if it had remained during the day and the cloud was taken up by night, they journeyed.