Numbers 9

1Yahweh 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:

2“The Israelites are to keep the Passover at its appointed time.

3Keep it at its appointed time, at twilight on the fourteenth day of this month. Keep it according to all its statutes and all its rules.”

4So Moses told the Israelites to keep the Passover,

5and they kept the Passover in the first month, at twilight on the fourteenth day of the month, in the wilderness of Sinai. The Israelites did everything just as Yahweh had commanded Moses.

6But there were some men who were unclean because of a dead body, and they could not keep the Passover on that day. So they came to Moses and Aaron that same day,

7and those men said to him, “We are unclean because of a dead body. Why should we be kept from presenting Yahweh’s offering at its appointed time along with the other Israelites?”

8Moses said to them, “Wait here, and I will hear what Yahweh commands concerning you.”

9Then Yahweh said to Moses,

10“Tell the Israelites: If any of you or your descendants are unclean because of a dead body, or are away on a long journey, they are still to keep the Passover to Yahweh.

11They are to keep it on the fourteenth day of the second month at twilight. They are to eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

12They must not leave any of it until morning or break any of its bones. They must keep it according to all the statutes of the Passover.

13But anyone who is clean and is not on a journey and yet fails to keep the Passover—that person must be cut off from their people, because they did not present Yahweh’s offering at its appointed time. That person will bear the consequences of their sin.

14If a foreigner living among you wants to keep the Passover to Yahweh, they must keep it according to the statutes and rules of the Passover. You are to have the same statute for the foreigner and for the native-born.”

15On the day the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony. From evening until morning it was over the tabernacle, looking like fire.

16That is how it always was: the cloud covered it, and at night it looked like fire.

17Whenever the cloud lifted from over the tent, the Israelites set out, and wherever the cloud settled, there the Israelites camped.

18At Yahweh’s command the Israelites set out, and at Yahweh’s command they camped. As long as the cloud stayed over the tabernacle, they remained in camp.

19When the cloud remained over the tabernacle for many days, the Israelites obeyed Yahweh’s charge and did not set out.

20Sometimes the cloud was over the tabernacle only a few days; at Yahweh’s command they camped, and at Yahweh’s command they set out.

21Sometimes the cloud stayed only from evening until morning, and when the cloud lifted in the morning, they set out. Or if it stayed a day and a night, when the cloud lifted, they set out.

22Whether it was two days or a month or longer, as long as the cloud remained over the tabernacle, staying on it, the Israelites remained in camp and did not set out; but when it lifted, they set out.

23At Yahweh’s command they camped, and at Yahweh’s command they set out. They obeyed Yahweh’s charge, as Yahweh commanded through Moses.