9 The Lord said 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 keep the Passover at its appointed time.

³ On the fourteenth day of this month in the evening, you shall keep it at its appointed time; according to all its statutes and ordinances you shall keep it.

⁴ So Moses told the Israelites they should keep the Passover.

⁵ And they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month in the evening in the Wilderness of Sinai; according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so the Israelites did.

⁶ And there were certain men who were defiled by touching the dead body of a man, so they could not keep the Passover on that day; and they came before Moses and Aaron on that day.

⁷ Those men said to [Moses], We are defiled by touching the dead body. Why are we prevented from offering the Lord’s offering at its appointed time among the Israelites?

⁸ And Moses said to them, Stand still, and I will hear what the Lord will command concerning you.

⁹ And the Lord said to Moses,

¹⁰ Say to the Israelites, If any man of you or of your posterity shall be unclean by reason of touching a dead body or is far off on a journey, still he shall keep the Passover to the Lord.

¹¹ On the fourteenth day of the second month in the evening they shall keep it, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

¹² They shall leave none of it until the morning nor break any bone of it; according to all the statutes for the Passover they shall keep it.^(A)

¹³ But the man who is clean and is not on a journey, yet does not keep the Passover, that person shall be cut off from among his people because he did not bring the Lord’s offering at its appointed time; that man shall bear [the penalty of] his sin.

¹⁴ And if a stranger sojourns among you and will keep the Passover to the Lord, according to [its] statutes and its ordinances, so shall he do; you shall have one statute both for the temporary resident and for him who was born in the land.

¹⁵ And on the day that the tabernacle was erected, the cloud [of God’s presence] covered the tabernacle, that is, the Tent of the Testimony; and at evening it was over the tabernacle, having the appearance of [a pillar of] fire until the morning.^(B)

¹⁶ So it was constantly; the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night.

¹⁷ Whenever the cloud was taken up from over the Tent, after that the Israelites journeyed; and in the place where the cloud rested, there the Israelites encamped.

¹⁸ At the Lord’s command the Israelites journeyed, and at [His] command they encamped. As long as the cloud rested upon the tabernacle they remained encamped.

¹⁹ Even when the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle many days, the Israelites kept the Lord’s charge and did not set out.

²⁰ And sometimes the cloud was only a few days upon the tabernacle, but according to the command of the Lord they remained encamped, and at His command they journeyed.

²¹ And sometimes the cloud remained [over the tabernacle] from evening only until morning, but when the cloud was taken up, they journeyed; whether it was taken up by day or by night, they journeyed.

²² Whether it was two days or a month or a longer time that the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle, dwelling on it, the Israelites remained encamped; but when it was taken up, they journeyed.

²³ At the command of the Lord they remained encamped, and at [His] command they journeyed; they kept the charge of the Lord, at the command of the Lord through Moses.