Numbers 9:4-14

4 Moshe spoke to the children of Yisra'el, that they should keep the Pesach.

5 They kept the Pesach in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at evening, in the wilderness of Sinai. According to all that the LORD commanded Moshe, so the children of Yisra'el did.

6 There were certain men, who were unclean because of the dead body of a man, so that they could not keep the Pesach on that day, and they came before Moshe and before Aharon on that day.

7 Those men said to him, "We are unclean because of the dead body of a man. Why are we kept back, that we may not offer the offering of the LORD in its appointed season among the children of Yisra'el?"

8 Moshe answered them, "Wait, that I may hear what the LORD will command concerning you."

9 The LORD spoke to Moshe, saying,

10 "Say to the children of Yisra'el, 'If any man of you or of your generations is unclean by reason of a dead body, or is on a journey far away, he shall still keep the Pesach to the LORD.

11 In the second month, on the fourteenth day at evening they shall keep it; they shall eat it with matzah and bitter herbs.

12 They shall leave none of it until the morning, nor break a bone of it. According to all the statute of the Pesach they shall keep it.

13 But the man who is clean, and is not on a journey, and fails to keep the Pesach, that soul shall be cut off from his people. Because he didn't offer the offering of the LORD in its appointed season, that man shall bear his sin.

14 If a foreigner lives among you, and desires to keep the Pesach to the LORD; according to the statute of the Pesach, and according to its ordinance, so shall he do. You shall have one statute, both for the sojourner, and for him who is born in the land.'"

Numbers 9:4-14 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.