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Yahweh 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, “Let the children of Israel keep the Passover in its appointed season. On the fourteenth day of this month, at evening, you shall keep it in its appointed season. You shall keep it according to all its statutes and according to all its ordinances.”

Moses told the children of Israel that they should keep the Passover. They kept the Passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, in the wilderness of Sinai. According to all that Yahweh commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did. There were certain men, who were unclean because of the dead body of a man, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day, and they came before Moses and Aaron on that day. Those men said to him, “We are unclean because of the dead body of a man. Why are we kept back, that we may not offer the offering of Yahweh in its appointed season among the children of Israel?”

Moses answered them, “Wait, that I may hear what Yahweh will command concerning you.”

Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 10 “Say to the children of Israel, ‘If any man of you or of your generations is unclean by reason of a dead body, or is on a journey far away, he shall still keep the Passover to Yahweh. 11 In the second month, on the fourteenth day at evening they shall keep it; they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 12 They shall leave none of it until the morning, nor break a bone of it. According to all the statute of the Passover they shall keep it. 13 But the man who is clean, and is not on a journey, and fails to keep the Passover, that soul shall be cut off from his people. Because he didn’t offer the offering of Yahweh in its appointed season, that man shall bear his sin.

14 “‘If a foreigner lives among you, and desires to keep the Passover to Yahweh, then he shall do so according to the statute of the Passover, and according to its ordinance. You shall have one statute, both for the foreigner, and for him who is born in the land.’”

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The Passover at Sinai(A)

The Lord spoke to Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai during the first month of the second year that they had left Egypt, “The Israelis are to observe the Passover at its appointed time on the fourteenth day of this month. You are to observe it at this appointed time between the evenings. You are to observe it according to all its decrees and laws.”

So Moses instructed the Israelis to observe the Passover. They observed the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight, in the Wilderness of Sinai. The Israelis did everything that the Lord had commanded through Moses.

Special Passover Rules

But there were men who couldn’t observe the Passover that day because they had come in contact with a corpse. That very day, they approached Moses and Aaron and asked, “Why can’t we bring an offering to the Lord at the appointed time among the Israelis, even though we are unclean because we came in contact with a corpse?”

“Wait while I hear what the Lord has to say about you,” Moses replied.

Then the Lord told Moses, 10 “Instruct[a] the Israelis that when any of you or your descendants becomes unclean due to contact with a corpse, or if he is on a long journey, he nevertheless is to observe the Lord’s Passover. 11 On the fourteenth day of the second month at twilight, they are to eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 12 They are not to leave any of it to remain until morning nor are they to break any of its bones. They are to observe it according to all the statutes of the Passover. 13 Now as to the person[b] who is clean and isn’t traveling, but fails to observe the Passover, that person[c] is to be eliminated from his people, because he didn’t bring an offering to the Lord at its appointed time. That person is to bear his sin. 14 If a resident alien lives with you and wants to observe the Lord’s Passover, let him observe it according to the statutes and laws of the Passover. You are to maintain the same statute[d] for the resident alien as you do for the native of the land.”

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Footnotes

  1. Numbers 9:10 Or speak
  2. Numbers 9:13 Lit. man
  3. Numbers 9:13 Or soul
  4. Numbers 9:14 Lit. one decree shall be for you