Numbers 9
1 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:
2 “Let the Israelites celebrate the Passover at its appointed time.
3 On the fourteenth day of this month, at twilight, you are to celebrate it at its appointed time. You are to celebrate it according to all its decrees and all its regulations.”
4 Moses told the Israelites to celebrate the Passover.
5 They celebrated the Passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, in the wilderness of Sinai. The Israelites did just as the LORD had commanded Moses.
6 Some men were unclean because of a dead person’s body and could not celebrate the Passover that day. They came before Moses and Aaron that day.
7 Those men said to him, “We are unclean because of a dead person’s body. Why should we be kept from presenting the LORD’s offering at its appointed time among the Israelites?”
8 Moses replied to them, “Wait here, and I will hear what the LORD commands concerning you.”
9 The LORD spoke to Moses:
10 “Speak to the Israelites: ‘If any of you or your descendants is unclean because of a dead person’s body, or is away on a distant journey, that person may celebrate the Passover to the LORD.
11 They are to celebrate it on the fourteenth day of the second month, at twilight. They are to eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
12 They must leave none of it until morning, and they must not break any of its bones. They are to celebrate it according to all the Passover decree.’”
13 “‘But if a man is clean and is not away on a journey, yet fails to celebrate the Passover, that person must be cut off from among his people. Because he did not present the LORD’s offering at its appointed time, that man will bear his sin.
14 If a foreigner living among you celebrates the Passover to the LORD, he is to celebrate it according to the Passover decree and its regulation. There is to be one decree for you, for the foreigner and the native of the land alike.’”
15 On the day the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the Tent of the Testimony. From evening until morning, something like the appearance of fire was over the tabernacle.
16 It was always like this: the cloud covered it, and at night it looked like fire.
17 Whenever the cloud lifted from above the tent, the Israelites would set out soon afterward. They camped wherever the cloud settled.
18 At the LORD’s command the Israelites set out, and at the LORD’s command they camped. They remained camped for as long as the cloud rested over the tabernacle.
19 When the cloud stayed over the tabernacle for many days, the Israelites kept the LORD’s charge and did not set out.
20 Sometimes the cloud remained over the tabernacle for only a few days. At the LORD’s command they camped, and at the LORD’s command they set out.
21 Sometimes the cloud remained from evening until morning. When it lifted in the morning, they set out. Or it remained for a day and a night, and when the cloud lifted, they set out.
22 Whether it was two days, a month, or many days, as long as the cloud remained over the tabernacle, settled above it, the Israelites stayed camped and did not set out. But when it lifted, they set out.
23 At the LORD’s command they camped, and at the LORD’s command they set out. They kept the LORD’s charge, as the LORD commanded through Moses.
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