The Supplementary Passover

Provision is here made for the celebration of the Passover a month later for persons who were unavoidably prevented from observing it on the right day. It is the first Passover after the Exodus.

1. in the first month] The month preceding the census (Numbers 1:1).

2. And let the children of Israel &c.] If the text is correct some previous command or portion of the sentence has been lost. This may have been due to the transposition of the section from its original position. LXX. reads εἰπὸν καὶ κ.τ.λ., ‘speak and let the children of Israel keep.’

3. all the statutes of it] These were laid down in Exodus 12:1-20; Exodus 12:43-49 (P ), Exo 12:21–23 (J ). The feast is referred to as a type in 1 Corinthians 5:7 f.; cf. Colossians 1:14, Ephesians 1:7 (with Armitage Robinson’s note).

6. Uncleanness prevented any share in a sacrificial feast on pain of death (Leviticus 7:20), and contact with a dead body was a source of uncleanness (Numbers 19:11).

10. Provision is made both for accidental uncleanness, and also for absence on a journey. This is evidently intended to be exhaustive, and was understood in later days to include all good reasons which might prevent anyone from keeping the festival. Cf. 2 Chronicles 30:2; 2 Chronicles 30:15.

of your generations] i.e. of future generations.

12. nor break a bone thereof] Cf. John 19:36.

13. shall be cut off] He shall suffer death by divine agency, not by punishment inflicted at the hands of the community.

shall bear his sin] Shall suffer the consequences of his sin; cf. Numbers 18:22; Numbers 18:32 (P ), Leviticus 19:17; Leviticus 20:20; Leviticus 22:9; Leviticus 24:15 (H), Ezekiel 23:49.

14. a stranger] a sojourner. The Heb. gêr has no exact equivalent in English. He was one who was not an Israelite but who, permanently or for a considerable period, put himself under Israelite protection and became a member of the community. He was sharply distinguished from a foreigner, who was making only a temporary stay in the country (tôshâbh, see Numbers 35:15). The latter was forbidden to eat the Passover (Exodus 12:45).

him that is born in the land] Heb. ’ezrâḥ, a native of the land, i.e. a full-blooded Israelite. R.V. sometimes ‘home-born,’ e.g. Numbers 15:13; Numbers 15:30.

15. it used to be upon the Dwelling] The verbs throughout the rest of the chapter are frequentative, with the exception of ‘they kept’ in Numbers 9:23.

18. at the commandment] lit. ‘mouth.’ Not only was a sign given by the cloud, but Jehovah used to give an oral command to Moses when the march was to begin and end.

21. Sometimes the cloud remained only from the evening till the next morning; sometimes it remained for a whole day and the following night; sometimes (Numbers 9:22) much longer. It is not necessary to press the question whether the writer thought that, when the encampment was for a single night’s rest, the whole elaborate structure was erected. He wishes to state exhaustively that the signal of the cloud was invariably obeyed.

22. a year] Heb. ‘days.’ This sometimes means ‘a year’ (e.g. 1 Samuel 27:7); but here it perhaps denotes only an indefinite period longer than a month.

Numbers 9:15-23The fiery cloud upon the Tabernacle

After a reference (Numbers 9:15 a) to the event related in Exodus 40:34 f., the section describes the invariable custom throughout the journeys of starting on the march when the cloud rose from the Tabernacle, and halting as long as it rested. It is an expansion of Exodus 40:36-38. The characteristic redundancy of the priestly style is noticeable.

The different writers of the Pentateuch describe different features in the appearance of the cloud. In J Jehovah is represented as leading the people by moving in front of them in a column of cloud by day and of fire by night (see on Numbers 14:14), and this began at the departure from Egypt (Exodus 13:21). In E the cloud is pictured similarly as a column, but its appearance is not mentioned until the sacred ‘tent of meeting’ had been erected, when it came down from time to time and stood at the door of the tent which was pitched outside the camp (Exodus 33:7-11, Numbers 11:25; Numbers 12:5; Numbers 12:10, Deuteronomy 31:15). In P it is not described as a column, but (as in J ) it was fiery at night, and (as in E ) it did not appear till the Tabernacle was erected, except that it formed part of the theophany on Mt Sinai (Exodus 24:15-18). It is not spoken of as a guide moving in front of the people, but it covered the Tabernacle which stood in the centre of the camp. It was the visible counterpart outside the sanctuary of the ‘Glory,’ the manifestation of the divine presence within.