Numbers 9:21

21 If the Cloud stayed only from sunset to daybreak and then lifted at daybreak, they marched. Night or day, it made no difference - when the Cloud lifted, they marched.

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 Even when the Cloud hovered over The Dwelling for many days, they honored God's command and wouldn't march.
20 They stayed in camp, obedient to God's command, as long as the Cloud was over The Dwelling, but the moment God issued orders they marched.
21 If the Cloud stayed only from sunset to daybreak and then lifted at daybreak, they marched. Night or day, it made no difference - when the Cloud lifted, they marched.
22 It made no difference whether the Cloud hovered over The Dwelling for two days or a month or a year, as long as the Cloud was there, they were there. And when the Cloud went up, they got up and marched.
23 They camped at God's command and they marched at God's command. They lived obediently by God's orders as delivered by Moses.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.