Numbers 9:15-23

15 On the day the Holy Tent, the Tent of the Agreement, was set up, a cloud covered it. From dusk until dawn the cloud above the Tent looked like fire.

16 The cloud stayed above the Tent, and at night it looked like fire.

17 When the cloud moved from its place over the Tent, the Israelites moved, and wherever the cloud stopped, the Israelites camped.

18 So the Israelites moved at the Lord's command, and they camped at his command. While the cloud stayed over the Tent, they remained camped.

19 Sometimes the cloud stayed over the Tent for a long time, but the Israelites obeyed the Lord and did not move.

20 Sometimes the cloud was over it only a few days. At the Lord's command the people camped, and at his command they moved.

21 Sometimes the cloud stayed only from dusk until dawn; when the cloud lifted the next morning, the people moved. When the cloud lifted, day or night, the people moved.

22 The cloud might stay over the Tent for two days, a month, or a year. As long as it stayed, the people camped, but when it lifted, they moved.

23 At the Lord's command the people camped, and at his command they moved. They obeyed the Lord's order that he commanded through 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.