Numbers 9

1. And 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,

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

3. In the fourteenth day of this month, between the two evenings, between sunset and dark you shall keep it in its appointed time. You shall keep it according to all its statutes, and according to all the ceremonies of it.”

4. And Moses spoke to the children of Israel to keep the Passover.

5. And they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month between the two evenings between sunset and dark in the wilderness of Sinai. According to all that the LORD commanded Moses, the children of Israel did.

6. And there were certain men who were defiled by the dead body of a man, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day. And they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day.

7. And those men said to him, “We are defiled by the dead body of a man. Why are we kept back that we may not offer an offering of the LORD in its appointed time among the children of Israel?”

8. And Moses said to them, “You wait here, and I will hear what the LORD will command about you.”

9. And the LORD spoke to Moses saying,

10. “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘If any man of you or of your generations shall be unclean because of a dead body, or in a journey afar off, he shall still keep the Passover to the LORD.

11. They shall keep it the fourteenth day of the second month between the two evenings, between sunset and dark eating it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

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

13. But the man that is clean, and is not in a journey, and holds back from keeping the Passover, even the same soul shall be cut off from among his people. Because he did not bring the offering of the LORD at its appointed time, that man shall bear his sin.

14. And if a stranger shall live among you, and will keep the Passover to the LORD, he shall do according to the law of the Passover, and according to its ordinance.You shall have only one law, both for the stranger and for him that was born in the land.’ ”

15. And on the day that the tabernacle was reared up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, even the tent of the testimony. And at sunset it was upon the tabernacle, appearing like fire, until the daybreak.

16. So it was always. The cloud covered it by day, and it appeared like fire by night.

17. And when the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, then after that the children of Israel pulled up stakes. And in the place where the cloud stayed, there the children of Israel pitched their tents.

18. At the command of the LORD the children of Israel pulled up stakes, and at the command of the LORD they pitched their tents. As long as the cloud stayed upon the tabernacle, they remained encamped.

19. And when the cloud stayed long upon the tabernacle many days, then the children of Israel kept the charge of the LORD and did not journey.

20. And so when the cloud remained a number of days upon the tabernacle, according to the command of the LORD they remained in camp, and according to the command of the LORD they pulled up stakes.

21. And so when the cloud stayed from sunset to the daybreak, and the cloud was taken up at daybreak, then they pulled up stakes. Whether by day or by night when the cloud was taken up, they pulled up stakes.

22. Whether it was two days, or a month, or a year, that the cloud stayed upon the tabernacle, remaining over it, the children of Israel stayed in their tents and did not journey. But when it was taken up, they pulled up stakes.

23. At the command of the LORD they encamped, and at the command of the LORD they pulled up stakes. They kept the charge of the LORD at the command of the LORD by the hand of Moses.