Numbers 9:1

The Second Passover

1 Now the Lord spoke to Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying:

2 “Let the children of Israel keep ^athe Passover at its appointed ^btime.

3 On the fourteenth day of this month,¹ at twilight, you shall keep it at its appointed time. According to all its³ rites and ceremonies you shall keep it.”

4 So Moses told the children of Israel that they should keep the Passover.

5 And ^athey kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month, at twilight, in the Wilderness of Sinai; according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did.

6 Now there were certain men who were ^adefiled by a human corpse, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day; ^band they came before Moses and Aaron that day.

7 And those men said to him, “We became defiled by a human corpse. Why are we kept from presenting the offering of the Lord at its appointed time among the children of Israel?”

8 And Moses said to them, “Stand still, that ^aI may hear what the Lord will command concerning you.”

9 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

10 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘If anyone of you or your¹ posterity is unclean because of a corpse, or is far away on a journey, he may still keep the Lord’s Passover.

11 On ^athe fourteenth day of the second month, at twilight, they may keep it. They shall ^beat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

12 ^aThey shall leave none of it until morning, ^bnor break one of its bones. ^cAccording to all the ordinances of the Passover they shall keep it.

13 But the man who is clean and is not on a journey, and ceases to keep the Passover, that same person ^ashall be cut off from among his people, because he ^bdid not bring the offering of the Lord at its appointed time; that man shall ^cbear his sin.

14 ‘And if a stranger¹ dwells among you, and would keep the Lord’s Passover, he must do so according to the rite of the Passover and according to its ceremony; ^ayou shall have one ordinance, both for the stranger and the native of the land.’ ”

The Cloud and the Fire

15 Now ^aon the day that the tabernacle was raised up, the cloud ^bcovered the tabernacle, the tent of the Testimony; ^cfrom evening until morning it was above the tabernacle like the appearance of fire.

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

17 Whenever the cloud ^awas taken up from above the tabernacle, after that the children of Israel would journey; and in the place where the cloud settled, there the children of Israel would pitch their tents.

18 At the¹ command of the Lord the children of Israel would journey, and at the command of the Lord they would camp; ^aas long as the cloud stayed above the tabernacle they remained encamped.

19 Even when the cloud continued long, many days above the tabernacle, the children of Israel ^akept the charge of the Lord and did not journey.

20 So it was, when the cloud was above the tabernacle a few days: according to the command of the Lord they would remain encamped, and according to the command of the Lord they would journey.

21 So it was, when the cloud remained only from evening until morning: when the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they would journey; whether by day or by night, whenever the cloud was taken up, they would journey.

22 Whether it was two days, a month, or a year that the cloud remained above the tabernacle, the children of Israel ^awould remain encamped and not journey; but when it was taken up, they would journey.

23 At the command of the Lord they remained encamped, and at the command of the Lord they journeyed; they ^akept the charge of the Lord, at the command of the Lord by the hand of Moses.

Commentaries:

Adam Clarke

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Numbers 9:1

The Lord spake unto Moses - The fourteen first verses of this chapter certainly refer to transactions that took place at the time of those mentioned in the commencement of this book, before the numbering of the people, and several learned men are of opinion that these fourteen verses should be referred back to that place. We have already met with instances where transpositions have very probably taken place, and it is not difficult to account for them. As in very early times writing was generally on leaves of the Egyptian flag papyrus, or on thin laminae of different substances, facts and transactions thus entered were very liable to be deranged; so that when afterwards a series was made up into a book, many transactions might be inserted in wrong places, and thus the exact chronology of the facts be greatly disturbed. MSS. written on leaves of trees, having a hole in each, through which a cord is passed to keep them all in their places, are frequently to be met with in the cabinets of the curious, and many such are now before me, especially in Singalese, Pali, and Burman. Should the cord break, or be accidentally unloosed, it would be exceedingly difficult to string them all in their proper places; accidents of this kind I have often met with to my very great perplexity, and in some cases found it almost impossible to restore each individual leaf to its own place; for it should be observed that these separate pieces of oriental writing are not always paged like the leaves of our printed books; nor are there frequently any catch-words or signatures at the bottom to connect the series. This one consideration will account for several transpositions, especially in the Pentateuch, where they occur more frequently than in any other part of the sacred writings. Houbigant, who grants the existence of such transpositions, thinks that this is no sufficient reason why the present order of narration should be changed: "It is enough," says he, non ignorare libros eos Mosis esse acta rerum suo tempore gestarum, non historiam filo perpetuo elaboratam, " "to know that these books contain an account of things transacted in the days of Moses, though not in their regular or chronological order.'

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