Numbers 9:15-23

New Catholic Bible

¹⁵ Journeying by the Cloud. Now on the day that the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of meeting. From evening until morning it appeared in the form of fire. ¹⁶ The cloud covered it by day and fire by night. ¹⁷ Whenever the cloud was lifted up from the tabernacle, the people of Israel would journey out. The people of Israel would then settle and pitch their tent in the place where the cloud would descend.

¹⁸ The people of Israel would journey at the command of the Lord, and they would camp at the command of the Lord. As long as the cloud hovered over the tabernacle, they would stay where they were. ¹⁹ Even when the cloud hovered over the tabernacle for several days, the people of Israel would observe the command of the Lord and they would not journey out. ²⁰ At times the cloud would hover over the tabernacle for a few days. They stayed where they were in accordance with the command of the Lord, and they journeyed out in accordance with the command of the Lord. ²¹ Other times, the cloud would hover from evening until morning, and then the cloud would be lifted up in the morning. They would then journey out. Whether it was by day or by night that the cloud lifted off, it was then that they would journey out. ²² Whether it was two days or a month or a year that the cloud hovered over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would remain where they were. When it was lifted up, then they would journey out. ²³ At the command of the Lord, they stayed where they were and at the command of the Lord they journeyed out. They observed the bidding of the Lord,^[a] in accordance with the commands of the Lord received through Moses.