The Second Passover^(A)

9 Now the Lord spoke 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, saying: ² “Let the children of Israel keep ^(B)the Passover at its appointed ^(C)time. ³ On the fourteenth day of this month, ^[a]at twilight, you shall ^[b]keep it at its appointed time. According to all its ^[c]rites and ceremonies you shall keep it.” ⁴ So Moses told the children of Israel that they should keep the Passover. ⁵ And ^(D)they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month, at twilight, in the Wilderness of Sinai; according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did.

⁶ Now there were certain men who were ^(E)defiled by a human corpse, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day; ^(F)and they came before Moses and Aaron that day. ⁷ And those men said to him, “We became defiled by a human corpse. Why are we kept from presenting the offering of the Lord at its appointed time among the children of Israel?”

⁸ And Moses said to them, “Stand still, that ^(G)I may hear what the Lord will command concerning you.”

⁹ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁰ “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘If anyone of you or your ^[d]posterity is unclean because of a corpse, or is far away on a journey, he may still keep the Lord’s Passover. ¹¹ On ^(H)the fourteenth day of the second month, at twilight, they may keep it. They shall ^(I)eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. ^12 (J)They shall leave none of it until morning, ^(K)nor break one of its bones. ^(L)According to all the ^[e]ordinances of the Passover they shall keep it. ¹³ But the man who is clean and is not on a journey, and ceases to keep the Passover, that same person ^(M)shall be cut off from among his people, because he ^(N)did not bring the offering of the Lord at its appointed time; that man shall ^(O)bear his sin.

¹⁴ ‘And if a stranger ^[f]dwells among you, and would keep the Lord’s Passover, he must do so according to the rite of the Passover and according to its ceremony; ^(P)you shall have one ^[g]ordinance, both for the stranger and the native of the land.’ ”

The Cloud and the Fire^(Q)

¹⁵ Now ^(R)on the day that the tabernacle was raised up, the cloud ^(S)covered the tabernacle, the tent of the Testimony; ^(T)from evening until morning it was above the tabernacle like the appearance of fire. ¹⁶ So it was always: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night. ¹⁷ Whenever the cloud ^(U)was ^[h]taken up from above the tabernacle, after that the children of Israel would journey; and in the place where the cloud settled, there the children of Israel would pitch their tents. ¹⁸ At the ^[i]command of the Lord the children of Israel would journey, and at the command of the Lord they would camp; ^(V)as long as the cloud stayed above the tabernacle they remained encamped. ¹⁹ Even when the cloud continued long, many days above the tabernacle, the children of Israel ^(W)kept the charge of the Lord and did not journey. ²⁰ So it was, when the cloud was above the tabernacle a few days: according to the command of the Lord they would remain encamped, and according to the command of the Lord they would journey. ²¹ So it was, when the cloud remained only from evening until morning: when the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they would journey; whether by day or by night, whenever the cloud was taken up, they would journey. ²² Whether it was two days, a month, or a year that the cloud remained above the tabernacle, the children of Israel ^(X)would remain encamped and not journey; but when it was taken up, they would journey. ²³ At the command of the Lord they remained encamped, and at the command of the Lord they journeyed; they ^(Y)kept the charge of the Lord, at the command of the Lord by the hand of Moses.