Numbers 9

This chapter belongs to the Sinai wilderness narrative in the opening section of Numbers (chapters 1–10). Following the regulations for the lamps and the dedication of the Levites in chapter 8, it records the remaining preparations before Israel departed from the wilderness of Sinai. Verse 1 places these events "in the first month of the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt," which is earlier than the census in Numbers 1 (the second month of the second year). The chapter is therefore understood to be arranged by theme rather than in chronological order.

Outline

• Verses 1–5: The LORD commands Moses that the Passover be kept at its appointed season, at evening on the fourteenth day of the first month, and the children of Israel keep it in the wilderness of Sinai as commanded.
• Verses 6–8: Certain men who had become unclean because of a dead body, and so could not keep the Passover, come to Moses and Aaron with their question. Moses tells them to wait while he hears what the LORD will command.
• Verses 9–14: The LORD declares that anyone unclean because of a dead body or on a long journey is to keep the Passover on the fourteenth day of the second month, eating the lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, leaving none of it until morning, and breaking none of its bones. Anyone who is clean and not on a journey yet fails to keep it is to be cut off from among his people. A stranger who sojourns among Israel may also keep the Passover according to the same ordinance.
• Verses 15–23: From the day the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered it by day, and by night there was the appearance of fire. When the cloud was taken up, the people journeyed; when it remained, they encamped. Whether for two days, a month, or a year, they remained and set out at the commandment of the LORD.

Key Verses

• Numbers 9:10: "If any man of you or of your posterity shall be unclean by reason of a dead body, or be in a journey afar off, yet he shall keep the passover unto the LORD." This provision gave a second opportunity to those who had been unable to keep the Passover.
• Numbers 9:12: "Nor break any bone of it." The New Testament connects this expression with the death of Jesus.
• Numbers 9:18: "At the commandment of the LORD the children of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the LORD they pitched." This verse summarizes the governing principle of the wilderness journey.

People and Places

• Moses, Aaron
• Wilderness of Sinai: The wilderness at the foot of Mount Sinai, where Israel received the law and set up the tabernacle.
• Egypt: The land from which Israel came out.
• Tent of the testimony: Another name for the tabernacle, meaning the tent in which the tablets of the testimony (the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments) were kept.

Points for Reflection

• The Passover kept in the second month is read in connection with 2 Chronicles 30, where Hezekiah kept the Passover in the second month. Jewish tradition is reported to commemorate this day as the "Second Passover."
• The phrase "shall be cut off" in verse 13 is interpreted by some as expulsion from the community and by others as a penalty inflicted directly by God.
• The provision for the stranger in verse 14 is read together with the requirement of circumcision in Exodus 12.
• The regulation against breaking the bones in verse 12 is linked with John 19, where the bones of Jesus on the cross were not broken. Together with the understanding of Christ as the Passover lamb in 1 Corinthians 5, it is often read as a type of Christ (a picture that foreshadows him).
• The account of the cloud and fire continues from Exodus 40:34–35. Some readers apply it as a model of the Holy Spirit's guidance in the believer's life. Others hold that, because it was a one-time event guiding the entire community, caution is needed in generalizing it into a sign for guiding individual decisions.

In the Korean Church

Verses 15–23 are frequently used as a sermon text on God's guidance and obedience, and they are often cited at the New Year or before a new beginning in the life of a church.