Numbers 9

9 ¹ Our Father spoke to Moses in the Sinai wilderness, in the first month of the second year after they left Egypt:

² Let the people of Israel keep the Passover at its appointed time. ³ On this month's fourteenth day, at twilight, observe it at its set time, by all its statutes and all its rules.

⁴ So Moses told the people of Israel that they should keep the Passover. ⁵ In the wilderness of Sinai, they kept the Passover on day fourteen of the first month, at twilight, as our Father commanded Moses. ⁶ Some men were unclean from touching a corpse and could not observe Passover that day, so they came before Moses and Aaron that day. ⁷ Those men said to him, "We are unclean from a dead body. Why must we be kept from presenting our Father's offering at its appointed time among the Israelites?"

⁸ And Moses said to them, "Wait here until I hear what our Father will command about this."

⁹ Our Father spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁰ Tell the Israelites: if any of you or your descendants is unclean from a corpse, or off on a distant journey, he may still keep the Passover to our Father. ¹¹ In month two, on day fourteen, at twilight, they must keep it, eating it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. ¹² They shall leave none of it until morning, break no bone of it, and keep it by every statute of the Passover. ¹³ But if a man is clean and not traveling, yet does not keep the Passover, that person must be cut off from his people, because he failed to bring our Father's offering at its set time; that man will bear his sin. ^a a v13 Being 'cut off from his people' meant formal exclusion from Israel's covenant community.

¹⁴ If a foreigner living among you wants to keep the Passover to our Father, he must follow the Passover's statute and rule. One statute applies to both foreigner and native of the land.

The Cloud Leads the Way

¹⁵ When the tabernacle—the tent of the testimony—was set up, the cloud covered it; from evening until morning it looked like fire over the tabernacle. ¹⁶ So it was continually: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night. ¹⁷ Whenever the cloud lifted from over the tent, the Israelites set out; wherever it settled, the Israelites camped. ¹⁸ At our Father's command Israel's people set out; at our Father's command they camped. As long as the cloud rested over the tabernacle, they remained camped. ¹⁹ When the cloud lingered over the tabernacle many days, the Israelites kept our Father's charge and did not set out. ²⁰ Sometimes the cloud stayed on the dwelling only a few days: at the command of our Father they camped, at the command of our Father they set out. ²¹ Sometimes the cloud stayed from evening to morning; when it lifted in the morning, they set out. Whether by day or night, when the cloud lifted, they set out. ²² Whether two days, a month, or longer, while the cloud remained over the tabernacle, Israel stayed in camp and did not set out; when it lifted, they set out. ²³ At our Father's command they camped; at his command they set out. They kept his charge, at our Father's command through Moses.