Numbers 9:16 Commentary

This chapter is, I. Concerning the great ordinance of the passover; 1. Orders given for the observance of it, at the return of the year (Num 9:1-5). 2. Provisos added in regard to such as should be ceremonially unclean, or otherwise disabled, at the time when the passover was to be kept (Num 9:6-14). II. Concerning the great favour of the pillar of cloud, which was a guide to Israel through the wilderness (Num 9:15, etc.).

INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 9 In this chapter the command for keeping the passover is repeated, and it was accordingly kept, Num 9:1; but some persons being defiled and disqualified for observing it, Moses inquires of the Lord, on their solicitation, what should be done in such a case, Num 9:6; when it was ordered to be kept by such, and those on journeys, on the fourteenth day of the second month, but not by others, who were to observe it according to its first appointment, Num 9:9; and an account is given of the appearance of the cloud by day, and fire by night, upon the tabernacle, which directed the children of Israel when to journey, and when to pitch their tents, Num 9:15.

And when the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle,.... Or went up from it, higher than it was before, yet not out of sight, but hung as it were hovering in the air over the tabernacle, but at some distance from it; this was done by the Lord himself: then after that the children of Israel journeyed; as soon as they saw the cloud moving upwards, the Levites took down the tabernacle, and each took their post assigned them in the carriage of it, and the priests blew their trumpets mentioned in Num 10:2, and the whole camp moved and marched on in their journey: and in the place where the cloud abode, there the children of Israel pitched their tents; when it stopped and remained without any motion, it was a signal to the children of Israel to stop also, and to set up the tabernacle, and pitch their tents about it by their standards, and according to the order of encampment which had been given them.

The people are informed that they shall shortly pass over Jordan, and that God shall go over before them, to expel the ancient inhabitants, Deu 9:1-3. They are cautioned not to suppose that it is on account of their righteousness that God is to give them that land, Deu 9:4-6. They are exhorted to remember their various provocations of the Divine Majesty, especially at Horeb, Deu 9:7-14; and how Moses interceded for them, and destroyed the golden calf, Deu 9:15-21. How they murmured at Taberah, Deu 9:22; and rebelled at Kadesh-barnea, Deu 9:23; and had been perverse from the beginning, Deu 9:24. An account of the intercession of Moses in their behalf, Deu 9:25-29.

THE PASSOVER ENJOINED. (Num 9:1-5) Let the children of Israel also keep the passover at his appointed season, &c.--The date of this command to keep the passover in the wilderness was given shortly after the erection and consecration of the tabernacle and preceded the numbering of the people by a month. (Compare Num 9:1 with Num 1:1-2). But it is narrated after that transaction in order to introduce the notice of a particular case, for which a law was provided to meet the occasion. This was the first observance of the passover since the exodus; and without a positive injunction, the Israelites were under no obligation to keep it till their settlement in the land of Canaan (Exo 12:25). The anniversary was kept on the exact day of the year on which they, twelve months before, had departed from Egypt; and it was marked by all the peculiar rites--the he lamb and the unleavened bread. The materials would be easily procured--the lambs from their numerous flocks and the meal for the unleavened bread, by the aid of Jethro, from the land of Midian, which was adjoining their camp (Exo 3:1). But their girded loins, their sandaled feet, and their staff in their hand, being mere circumstances attending a hurried departure and not essential to the rite, were not repeated. It is supposed to have been the only observance of the feast during their forty years' wandering; and Jewish writers say that, as none could eat the passover except they were circumcised (Exo 12:43-44, Exo 12:48), and circumcision was not practised in the wilderness [Jos 5:4-7], there could be no renewal of the paschal solemnity.