Numbers 9:21

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.

Numbers 9:21 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 9:21

And [so] it was when the cloud abode from even unto the
morning
The whole night, during which time they rested in their beds:

and [that] the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they journeyed;
whether [it was] by day or night that the cloud was taken up, they
journeyed;
whether at morning or midnight; for sometimes, as Aben Ezra observes, they travelled in the night; whensoever their sentinels gave notice that the cloud was taken up, even though at midnight, they arose and prepared for their journey; and by this it is evident, that the appearance by day and night was the same body called the cloud, though beheld in a different view, in the daytime as a cloud, in the nighttime as fire.

Numbers 9:21 In-Context

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.

22 Or if it was two days or a month or a year that the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle, remaining thereon, the sons of Israel camped and did not journey; but when it was taken up, they journeyed.

23 At the commandment of the LORD they camped, and at the commandment of the LORD they journeyed, keeping the charge of the LORD, as the LORD had said by the hand of Moses.