Numbers 9

Numbers 9:1 And Yahveh spoke to Moses in the open country of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, and this is what he said.

Numbers 9:2 “Let the people of Israel keep the Passover at its appointed time.

Numbers 9:3 On the fourteenth day of this month, at twilight, you will keep it at its appointed time; according to all its prescriptions and all its rules, you will keep it.”

Numbers 9:4 So Moses told the people of Israel that they should keep the Passover.

Numbers 9:5 And they kept the Passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, in the open country of Sinai; according to all that Yahveh commanded Moses, so the people of Israel did.

Numbers 9:6 Certain men had been contaminated because they had touched a dead throat, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day, and they came in the sight of Moses and Aaron on that day.

Numbers 9:7 And those men said to him, “We are contaminated because we have touched a dead throat. Why are we kept from bringing Yahveh’s offering at its appointed time among the people of Israel?”

Numbers 9:8 And Moses said to them, “Wait, that I may hear what Yahveh will command concerning you.”

Numbers 9:9 Yahveh spoke to Moses, and this is what he said,

Numbers 9:10 “Speak to the people of Israel, and this is what you should say: If any one of you or your descendants is contaminated because he has touched a dead throat, or is on a long journey, he will still keep the Passover to Yahveh.

Numbers 9:11 In the second month, on the fourteenth day at twilight, they will keep it. They will eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

Numbers 9:12 They will leave none of it until the morning, nor break any of its bones; according to all the prescriptions for the Passover, they will keep it.

Numbers 9:13 But if anyone who is pure and is not on a journey fails to keep the Passover, that throat will be eliminated from his people because he did not bring Yahveh’s offering at its appointed time; that man will pay for his failure.

Numbers 9:14 And if a foreign guest[1] sojourns among you and wants to keep the Passover to Yahveh, according to the prescription of the Passover and according to its rule, so will he do. You will have one prescription, both for the foreign guest and for the native.”

Numbers 9:15 On the day that the Tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the Tabernacle, the tent of the reminder. And in the evening, it was over the Tabernacle like the appearance of fire until morning.

Numbers 9:16 So it was always: the cloud covered it by day and the appearance of fire by night.

Numbers 9:17 And whenever the cloud lifted 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.

Numbers 9:18 At the command of Yahveh, the people of Israel set out, and at the command of Yahveh, they camped. As long as the cloud rested over the tabernacle, they remained in camp.

Numbers 9:19 Even when the cloud continued over the Tabernacle for many days, the people of Israel kept the charge of Yahweh and did not set out.

Numbers 9:20 Sometimes, the cloud stayed a few days over the Tabernacle, and according to Yahveh’s command, they remained in camp; then, according to Yahveh’s command, they set out.

Numbers 9:21 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.

Numbers 9:22 Whether it was two days, or a month, or a longer time, that the cloud continued over the tabernacle, staying there, the people of Israel remained in camp and did not set out, but when it lifted, they set out.

Numbers 9:23 At the command of Yahveh, they camped, and at the command of Yahveh, they set out. They kept the charge of Yahveh at the command of Yahveh Moses.

[1] גֵּר = foreign guest. Numbers 9:14; 15:14, 15, 16, 26, 29, 30; 19:10; 35:15.

Numbers 9 quotes:

“The rise and fall of Passover observance is seen throughout Israel’s history as one sure test for diagnosing the nation’s spiritual health. What is true for the group is also true for the individual. Here, for perhaps the first time, the sin of omission is cited as being as heinous as the sin of commission. Namely, it is as bad not to partake when clean, as it is to partake when unclean (v. 13). The threat of “cutting off” is the same threat levied against the long list of ritual violations in Leviticus 20.”

Boyce Richard Nelson. Leviticus and Numbers. 1st ed. Westminster John Knox Press 2008. p. 132

“Hudson Taylor reminded his missionary colleagues that the Christian’s response to daunting situations was best expressed in a terse phrase: ‘Impossible? Difficult. Done!’ Those words eloquently describe the Israelite people’s experience of liberation. Humanly speaking, it was Feo impossible. As God began to work on the hardened Egyptian ruler, the situation became unquestionably difficult, but because the Lord was omnipotently at work it was miraculously done. Passover assured these pilgrims that the Lord who brought them out of one country could certainly bring them into another.”

Brown Raymond. The Message of Numbers : Journey to the Promised Land. InterVarsity Press 2002. p. 72.

“When the children of Israel had been brought out of Egypt by the goodness and power of God, Moses told them what God wanted them to do to make sure they would remember Him. He didn’t want His acts to become ordinary to them. At the Red Sea Israel had been delivered from the power of Egypt, so that they were free to journey to Canaan. But they were not so free that they could direct their own steps. The almighty God led Moses to guide them by establishing certain times in their calendar when they would remember God especially. God would always be their refuge and their stronghold, but they needed to remember this in a special way.”

Gutzke, Manford George. Plain Talk on Leviticus and Numbers. Zondervan Pub. House., 1981. p. 79.

“The Lord responded to Moses’ inquiry by allowing those Israelites to celebrate the feast on the following month. The intervening month probably allowed the defiled individuals time to observe ritual cleansing. In one final perilous reminder, the Lord warned the community to observe the feast without excuse. Failure to do so would result in death. Foreigners could observe the feast at the regular time.”

Martin, Glen, and Max E. Anders. Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. Broadman & Holman, 2002. p. 294.

“The real and visible presence of God among his people was his response to their obedience in building the tabernacle (15). But this section is placed immediately after the account of the celebration of the second passover. The cloud of God’s presence first appeared after the first passover (Exod. 13:21–22). The tabernacle could be built only once, but the festivals of redemption were to be celebrated regularly. This narrative, therefore, looks beyond the wilderness situation, in which Israel could follow God’s leading in an immediate way, to a time when its faithfulness to the LORD would be demonstrated by their keeping of the festivals.”

Wenham, Gordon J.. Numbers: An Introduction and Commentary (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries Book 4) (pp. 113-114). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.