Numbers 9:3

3 at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. Be sure to follow all my decrees and regulations concerning this celebration.”

Numbers 9:3 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 9:3

In the fourteenth day of this month
The first month, the month Nisan or Abib, answering to part of our March: at even ye shall keep it, in his appointed season:
between the two evenings, ( Exodus 12:6 ) ; and even if it fall on the sabbath day, as Jarchi; and this was a sabbath day, according to the Jewish writers ^F25: according to all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies
thereof shall ye keep it;
the former of these, according to Jarchi, respects the lamb, and the requisites of it, that it should be without blemish, a male, and of the first year; and the latter, according to him and others, the removal of the leaven, and the seven days of unleavened bread, and the eating of the lamb with bitter herbs: they take in no doubt all that were prescribed by the original law, except the sprinkling of the blood on the doorposts, and also eating the passover in haste, with their loins girt, and shoes on their feet, and staves in their hands; though some think these latter might be observed at this time, when they were unsettled.

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FOOTNOTES:

F25 Seder Olam Rabba. c. 7.

Numbers 9:3 In-Context

1 A year after Israel’s departure from Egypt, the LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai. In the first month of that year he said,

2 “Tell the Israelites to celebrate the Passover at the prescribed time,

3 at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. Be sure to follow all my decrees and regulations concerning this celebration.”

4 So Moses told the people to celebrate the Passover

5 in the wilderness of Sinai as twilight fell on the fourteenth day of the month. And they celebrated the festival there, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.

Footnotes

• [a]. This day in the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar occurred in late March, April, or early May.