A Second Passover, and the Cloud
1 Yahweh 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 the Passover in its appointed season. 3 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.” 4 Moses told the children of Israel that they should keep the Passover. 5 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 Yahweh commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did. 6 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. 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 Yahweh in its appointed season among the children of Israel?” 8 Moses answered them, “Wait, that I may hear what Yahweh will command concerning you.” 9 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 10 “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 Yahweh. 11 In the second month, on the fourteenth day at evening they shall keep it; they shall eat it with unleavened bread 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 Passover they shall keep it. 13 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 Yahweh in its appointed season, that man shall bear his sin. 14 “‘If a foreigner lives among you and desires to keep the Passover to Yahweh, 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.’” 15 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. 16 So it was continually. The cloud covered it, and the appearance of fire by night. 17 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. 18 At the commandment of Yahweh, the children of Israel traveled, and at the commandment of Yahweh they encamped. As long as the cloud remained on the tabernacle they remained encamped. 19 When the cloud stayed on the tabernacle many days, then the children of Israel kept Yahweh’s command, and didn’t travel. 20 Sometimes the cloud was a few days on the tabernacle; then according to the commandment of Yahweh they remained encamped, and according to the commandment of Yahweh they traveled. 21 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. 22 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. 23 At the commandment of Yahweh they encamped, and at the commandment of Yahweh they traveled. They kept Yahweh’s command, at the commandment of Yahweh by Moses.
Men who were unclean at Passover ask why they should be excluded, and a second date is created for them.
The Passover is kept at Sinai in the first month of the second year Numbers 9:5 — the first anniversary of the exodus, and the only one recorded in the wilderness.
And then a problem arises that the law had not covered. Some men were unclean because of the dead body of a man and could not keep it. They come to Moses with a question that is remarkable for its tone: why are we kept back, that we may not offer the offering of Yahweh in its appointed season among the children of Israel? Numbers 9:7.
They are not complaining about the rule. They are objecting to being left out, and what they want is to bring an offering. Their uncleanness was incurred by burying somebody, which was a duty.
Moses does not rule. wait, that I may hear what Yahweh will command concerning you Numbers 9:8 — the same restraint shown in the two other cases where the law had a gap Leviticus 24:12 Numbers 15:34, and it is recorded approvingly each time.
The answer creates a second date. Anyone unclean or on a journey far away may keep the Passover in the second month on the fourteenth day at evening Numbers 9:10–11, with the same statutes.
A whole extra festival date is added to the calendar because a few men asked to be included. Centuries later a king used that provision to hold a national Passover a month late 2 Chronicles 30:2–3, and the door had been opened by this conversation.
The balance is kept in the next verses: a man who is clean and not traveling and does not keep it shall be cut off Numbers 9:13. The provision is for those prevented, not for those who cannot be bothered. And the foreigner who wants to keep it is admitted on the same terms Numbers 9:14.
The chapter then closes with the cloud, and the description is a study in unpredictability. Sometimes it stayed many days; sometimes from evening until morning; sometimes two days, or a month, or a year Numbers 9:19–22.
No pattern, no notice, and no way to plan. A family might unpack for a year or repack before breakfast, and the only rule was to watch. Six times in nine verses the text says they moved and camped at the commandment of Yahweh, which is a long way of saying that obedience here consisted almost entirely of waiting and then being ready.
settled What this mark means