Chapter Nine

The Passover celebration. — Passover for the unclean according to the law; Passover for travelers. — The cloud over the tent of meeting.

Numbers 9:1. And the Lord said to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in the second year after they came out from the land of Egypt, in the first month, saying: Numbers 9:2. The sons of Israel shall keep the Passover at its appointed time: Numbers 9:3. On the fourteenth day of this month, in the evening, you shall keep it at its appointed time; according to all its statutes and according to all its ordinances you shall keep it. Numbers 9:4. And Moses said to the sons of Israel that they should keep the Passover. There is an assumption that the Passover observed by the Hebrews near Mount Sinai was the only one observed during their wandering in the Arabian wilderness. In support of this there is pointed to the fact that during their wanderings in the wilderness the ordinance of circumcision was not strictly observed among the Hebrew people (Josh 5:2-8); yet according to the meaning of Exod 12:48 the uncircumcised could not partake of the Passover. The next mention of the Hebrews’ observance of the Passover is found in Josh 5:10 after the account of the nation’s full compliance with the law of circumcision.

Numbers 9:9. And the Lord said to Moses, saying: Numbers 9:10. Say to the sons of Israel: If any one of you or your descendants becomes unclean from contact with a dead body, or is on a distant journey, he shall also observe the Passover to the Lord; Numbers 9:11. On the fourteenth day of the second month in the evening they shall keep it and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs; Numbers 9:12. They shall leave none of it until morning, nor break any of its bones; they shall keep it according to all the ordinances of the Passover. The Passover observed for some legitimate reason later than the appointed time was called by the Hebrews the Lesser Passover. Later such a Passover was observed by the Judean king Hezekiah, because the priests and Levites had not succeeded by the 14th day of the first month in cleansing the neglected temple and in purifying themselves (2 Chr 30:2).

Numbers 9:13. But whoever is clean and not on a journey and does not observe the Passover, that person shall be cut off from his people, because he did not bring the offering of the Lord at its appointed time: that man shall bear his sin; The expression: “that person shall be cut off from his people” is understood in different ways. The violator of the law concerning the Passover was either subjected to capital punishment, or exile from the people, or underwent the direct force of God’s punishing hand (compare Gen 9:11; Gen 17:14; Exod 30:33; Lev 18:29 and others).

Numbers 9:15. On the day the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony, and from evening until morning there was above the tabernacle something like the appearance of fire. 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 above the tent, then the sons of Israel would set out on their journey; and in the place where the cloud settled, there the sons of Israel would camp. Numbers 9:18. At the command of the Lord the sons of Israel would set out on their journey, and at the command of the Lord they would camp; as long as the cloud rested over the tabernacle, they remained. Numbers 9:19. When the cloud remained long over the tabernacle, the sons of Israel kept the charge of the Lord and did not set out. Numbers 9:20. And sometimes the cloud was only a few days over the tabernacle; at the command of the Lord they remained, and at the command of the Lord they set out on their journey. Numbers 9:21. Sometimes the cloud remained only from evening until morning; and when the cloud lifted in the morning, they set out; or if it remained a day and a night, and the cloud lifted, they would set out. Numbers 9:22. Or if two days, or a month, or a longer time that the cloud remained over the tabernacle, abiding above it, the sons of Israel remained and did not set out; but when it lifted, they would set out. Numbers 9:23. At the command of the Lord they camped, and at the command of the Lord they set out on their journey; they kept the charge of the Lord, at the command of the Lord by the hand of Moses. A remark about the miraculous cloud that covered the tabernacle and directed the movement of the Israelite camp (compare Exod 40:34-38).