Numbers 9: A second Passover, and the cloud over the tabernacle

In plain English: 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,

Good to know: This verse goes back in time. Numbers begins in the second month of the second year (Numbers 1:1), but this Passover is in the first month, a month earlier.

In plain English: "The Israelites are to keep the Passover at its appointed time.

In plain English: You are to keep it at its appointed time, on the fourteenth day of this month, at evening (literally: between the two evenings). You are to keep it by all its statutes and all its rules."

The Hebrew words: "At evening" is the Hebrew ben ha-arbayim, literally "between the two evenings", the same phrase used for the first Passover lamb in Exodus 12:6. The text does not say exactly which hour it means.

In plain English: So Moses told the Israelites to keep the Passover.

In plain English: They kept the Passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at evening, in the wilderness of Sinai. The Israelites did everything just as Yahweh had commanded Moses.

In plain English: But there were some men who were unclean because of a dead body (literally: the soul of a person), so they could not keep the Passover on that day. That same day they came to Moses and Aaron.

The Hebrew word: "Dead body" here is nephesh, the word usually given as "soul". The dictionary gives it as "properly, a breathing creature".

How it is translated: In Numbers this Bible says "soul" or "souls" in 24 of the 44 verses that use nephesh, and "dead" in 8, all for touching or being near a dead person, as here.

In plain English: The men said to him, "We are unclean because of a dead body. Why should we be kept back from bringing Yahweh's offering at its appointed time among the Israelites?"

In plain English: Moses said to them, "Wait (literally: stand), and I will hear what Yahweh commands about you."

In plain English: Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

In plain English: "Tell the Israelites: 'If any of you or of your descendants is unclean because of a dead body, or is far away on a journey, he is still to keep the Passover to Yahweh.

In plain English: They are to keep it in the second month, on the fourteenth day, at evening. They are to eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

In plain English: They must leave none of it until morning, and must not break any of its bones. They are to keep it by every statute of the Passover.

Good to know: Not breaking a bone of the Passover lamb is also commanded in Exodus 12:46. John 19:36 quotes "A bone of him will not be broken" about Jesus on the cross.

In plain English: But the man who is clean and is not on a journey, and still fails to keep the Passover, that person is to be cut off from his people. Because he did not bring Yahweh's offering at its appointed time, that man will carry his sin.

Good to know: The text does not say what "cut off from his people" means: being put to death, being sent away from the people, or a punishment that comes from God. Readers differ. See the note on Leviticus 17:4.

In plain English: If a foreigner (or: a stranger living with you) lives among you and wants to keep the Passover to Yahweh, he is to keep it by the statute of the Passover and its rule. You are to have one statute, both for the foreigner and for the one born in the land.'"

In plain English: On the day the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the Tent of the Testimony. From evening until morning there was something over the tabernacle that looked like fire.

Good to know: Exodus 40:34 to 38 tells the same thing: the cloud covered the tent on the day it was set up, with fire in the cloud by night, and the people moved only when the cloud was lifted.

In plain English: It was always so: the cloud covered it, and by night it looked like fire.

In plain English: Whenever the cloud was lifted from over the Tent, the Israelites set out after that, and in the place where the cloud settled, there the Israelites camped.

In plain English: At Yahweh's command (literally: on the mouth of Yahweh) the Israelites set out, and at Yahweh's command they camped. As long as the cloud stayed over the tabernacle, they stayed in camp.

In plain English: When the cloud stayed over the tabernacle for many days, the Israelites kept Yahweh's charge (or: did their duty to Yahweh) and did not set out.

In plain English: Sometimes the cloud was over the tabernacle for only a few days. At Yahweh's command they stayed in camp, and at Yahweh's command they set out.

In plain English: Sometimes the cloud stayed only from evening until morning, and when the cloud was lifted in the morning, they set out. Whether by day or by night, when the cloud was lifted, they set out.

In plain English: Whether it was two days, or a month, or a year (literally: days) that the cloud stayed over the tabernacle, staying on it, the Israelites stayed in camp and did not set out. But when it was lifted, they set out.

In plain English: At Yahweh's command they camped, and at Yahweh's command they set out. They kept Yahweh's charge, at Yahweh's command given through Moses (literally: by the hand of Moses).