Numbers 9

¹Now the Lord

²“Let the children of Israel keep the Passover at its appointed time.

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

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

⁵And they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month, at twilight, in the Wilderness of Sinai; according to all that the Lord

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

⁷And those men said to him, “We became defiled by a human corpse. Why are we kept from presenting the offering of the Lord

⁸And Moses said to them, “Stand still, that I may hear what the Lord

⁹Then the Lord

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

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

¹²They shall leave none of it until morning, nor break one of its bones. According to all the ordinances of the Passover they shall keep it.

¹³But the man who is clean and is not on a journey, and ceases to keep the Passover, that same person shall be cut off from among his people, because he did not bring the offering of the Lord

¹⁴‘And if a stranger dwells among you, and would keep the Lord

¹⁵Now on the day that the tabernacle was raised up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the Testimony; from evening until morning it was above the tabernacle like the appearance of fire.

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

¹⁷Whenever the cloud was 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.

¹⁸At the command of the Lord

¹⁹Even when the cloud continued long, many days above the tabernacle, the children of Israel kept the charge of the Lord

²⁰So it was, when the cloud was above the tabernacle a few days: according to the command of the Lord

²¹So 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.

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

²³At the command of the Lord