Numbers 9 Summary

The LORD commands Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after the Exodus, that Israel must keep the Passover at its appointed time; the people obey on the fourteenth day of the first month. When certain men are found ceremonially unclean due to contact with a dead body and cannot observe the Passover, Moses inquires of the LORD, who establishes a provision: those unclean or on a distant journey may keep a "second Passover" on the fourteenth day of the second month, following all the same ordinances. The LORD also rules that any willing sojourner must keep the Passover by the same ordinance as the native-born, while any clean person who deliberately neglects it shall be cut off from the people. The chapter concludes by describing the cloud that covered the tabernacle by day and appeared as fire by night, which governed all the movements and encampments of Israel — they journeyed when it lifted and rested whenever it settled, for however long, in complete obedience to the commandment of the LORD.