Numbers 9:15-23

The Cloud Covering the Tabernacle

15 ¹On the day that the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony. And ²at evening it was over the tabernacle like the appearance of fire until morning.

16 So it was always: the cloud covered it by day^[a] and the appearance of fire by night.

17 And whenever the cloud ³lifted from over the tent, after that the people of Israel set out, and in the place where the cloud settled down, there the people of Israel camped.

18 At the command of the LORD the people of Israel set out, and at the command of the LORD they camped. ⁴As long as the cloud rested over the tabernacle, they remained in camp.

19 Even when the cloud continued over the tabernacle many days, the people of Israel ⁵kept the charge of the LORD and did not set out.

20 Sometimes the cloud was a few days over the tabernacle, and according to the command of the LORD they remained in camp; then according to the command of the LORD they set out.

21 And sometimes the cloud remained from evening until morning. And when the cloud lifted in the morning, they set out, or if it continued for a day and a night, when the cloud lifted they set out.

22 Whether it was two days, or a month, or a longer time, that the cloud continued over the tabernacle, abiding there, the people of Israel ⁶remained in camp and did not set out, but when it lifted they set out.

23 At the command of the LORD they camped, and at the command of the LORD they set out. ⁷They kept the charge of the LORD, at the command of the LORD by Moses.

Numbers 9:15-23 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 9

In this chapter the command for keeping the passover is repeated, and it was accordingly kept, Nu 9:1-5; but some persons being defiled and disqualified for observing it, Moses inquires of the Lord, on their solicitation, what should be done in such a case, Nu 9:6-8; when it was ordered to be kept by such, and those on journeys, on the fourteenth day of the second month, but not by others, who were to observe it according to its first appointment, Nu 9:9-14; and an account is given of the appearance of the cloud by day, and fire by night, upon the tabernacle, which directed the children of Israel when to journey, and when to pitch their tents, Nu 9:15-23.

Cross References

• 1. Exodus 40:17, 34
• 2. See Exodus 13:21
• 3. Numbers 10:11, 33, 34; Exodus 40:36
• 4. [1 Corinthians 10:1]
• 5. See Numbers 1:53
• 6. Exodus 40:36, 37
• 7. [See ver. 19 above]

Footnotes

• [a]. Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate; Hebrew lacks by day