The Fourth Book of Moses: Numbers

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- Chapter 9 -

(Exodus 12:1–13)

One year after the Israelites left Egypt, on the first month of the second year, while they were in the wilderness of Sinai, Yahweh said to Moses,

“Tell the Israelite people that they must celebrate the Passover festival again.

They must do it on the fourteenth day of this month, early in the evening, and they must obey all the instructions about it that I gave you previously.”

So Moses told the people what Yahweh had said about celebrating the Passover.

The people celebrated it there in the wilderness of Sinai, in the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, just as Yahweh had commanded Moses.

But some of the Israelite people had touched a corpse, and as a result they had become unfit to celebrate the Passover. So they asked Aaron and Moses,

“It is true that we have touched a corpse. But why should that prevent us from celebrating the Passover festival and offering sacrifices to Yahweh like everyone else?”

Moses replied, “Wait here until I go into the sacred tent and find out what Yahweh says about it.”

So Moses went into the tent and asked Yahweh what he should tell the people, and this is what Yahweh said:

“Tell this to the Israelite people: ’If any of you or your descendants touch a corpse and as a result become unacceptable to me, or if you are away from home on a long trip at the time to celebrate the Passover, you will still be permitted to celebrate it.

But you must celebrate it exactly one month later, early in the evening of the fourteenth day of that month. Eat the meat of the lamb for the Passover festival with bread that is baked without yeast, and eat bitter herbs.

Do not leave any of it until the next morning. And do not break any of the lamb’s bones. Obey all the regulations about celebrating the Passover.

But if any of you has not done anything that would make you unfit to celebrate the Passover festival, and you are not away from home on a long trip, and you do not sacrifice to me at the proper time, you will no longer belong to my people. You will be punished.

Settled foreigners who live among you must also celebrate the Passover festival and obey all my commands concerning it.’”

The Cloud above the Tabernacle

(Exodus 40:34–38)

On the day that the sacred tent was set up, a cloud covered it. But from the time that the sun set until the time that the sun rose the next day, the cloud resembled a huge fire.

And that is what happened every day that the Israelites were in the wilderness.

When the cloud rose up and started to move to a new location, the Israelites followed it. When the cloud stopped, the Israelites stopped there and set up their tents.

The Israelites moved when Yahweh told them to move and stopped when Yahweh told them to stop by causing the cloud to move or stop. When the cloud stayed over the sacred tent, the Israelites stayed at that place.

Sometimes the cloud stayed over the sacred tent for a long time, so when that happened, the Israelites did not move.

Sometimes the cloud remained over the sacred tent for only a few days. The people stopped and set up their tents as Yahweh commanded them, and they moved to a new location when Yahweh commanded them to do that.

Sometimes the cloud stayed in one place for only one day. When that happened, when the cloud rose up into the sky the next morning, then the people moved. Whenever the cloud moved, during the day or during the night, the people moved.

If the cloud stayed over the sacred tent for two days, or for a month, or for a year, during that time the people stayed where they were. But when the cloud rose up into the sky, they started to move.

When Yahweh commanded them to stop and set up their tents, they did that. When he told them to move, they moved. They did whatever Yahweh told Moses they should do.

(Exodus 12:1–13)

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,

“Let the children of Israel keep the Passover in its appointed season.

On the fourteenth day of this month, at evening, you shall keep it in its appointed season. You shall keep it according to all its statutes and according to all its ordinances.”

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

They kept the Passover 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 Moses, so the children of Israel did.

There were certain men who were unclean because of the dead body of a man, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day, and they came before Moses and Aaron on that day.

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 Israel?”

Moses answered them, “Wait, that I may hear what the LORD will command concerning you.”

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

“Say to the children of Israel, ‘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 Passover to the LORD.

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

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

But the man who is clean, and is not on a journey, and fails to keep the Passover, 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.

“‘If a foreigner lives among you and desires to keep the Passover to the LORD, then he shall do so according to the statute of the Passover, and according to its ordinance. You shall have one statute, both for the foreigner and for him who is born in the land.’”

The Cloud above the Tabernacle

(Exodus 40:34–38)

On the day that the tabernacle was raised up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, even the Tent of the Testimony. At evening it was over the tabernacle, as it were the appearance of fire, until morning.

So it was continually. The cloud covered it, and the appearance of fire by night.

Whenever the cloud was taken up from over the Tent, then after that the children of Israel traveled; and in the place where the cloud remained, there the children of Israel encamped.

At the commandment of the LORD, the children of Israel traveled, and at the commandment of the LORD they encamped. As long as the cloud remained on the tabernacle they remained encamped.

When the cloud stayed on the tabernacle many days, then the children of Israel kept the LORD’s command, and didn’t travel.

Sometimes the cloud was a few days on the tabernacle; then according to the commandment of the LORD they remained encamped, and according to the commandment of the LORD they traveled.

Sometimes the cloud was from evening until morning; and when the cloud was taken up in the morning, they traveled; or by day and by night, when the cloud was taken up, they traveled.

Whether it was two days, or a month, or a year that the cloud stayed on the tabernacle, remaining on it, the children of Israel remained encamped, and didn’t travel; but when it was taken up, they traveled.

At the commandment of the LORD they encamped, and at the commandment of the LORD they traveled. They kept the LORD’s command, at the commandment of the LORD by Moses.