Numbers 9:2
in Numbers 9“The Israelites are to observe the Passover at its appointed time.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Moreover let the children of Israel keep the passover in its appointed season.
KJV
Let the children of Israel also keep the passover at his appointed season.
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This verse in Numbers 9
Commentary
3 notes on this verseLet the children of Israel also keep the passover,.... Though this ordinance was enjoined the people of Israel, and observed by them at the time of their coming out of Egypt, and had been since repeated, Lev 23:5; yet without a fresh precept, or an explanation of the former, they seemed not to be obliged, or might not be sensible that they were obliged to keep it, until they came into the land of Canaan, Exo 12:25; and therefore a new order is given them to observe it: at his appointed season; and what that season is is next declared.
This site's exposition
in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month
on Numbers 9:1-3
The date sets this chapter a month earlier than the census that opens the book, since Numbers 1:1 falls on the first day of the second month of the second year and this passover on the fourteenth day of the first. Barnes and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown both read chapter 9 as placed here to introduce the case at verses 6 to 14 rather than to keep the chapters in calendar order. This is the second passover Israel ever kept, one year after the night of Exodus 12, and Exodus 12:25 had tied the ordinance to a land they had not yet reached.
The record, by era
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
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 (Ex 12:25).
How the passage was read
On Numbers 9:1-14On Numbers 9:1-14
The make-up Passover
This passage creates something rare in the Law: a second chance at a feast. Anyone unclean or far away at Passover could keep it exactly one month later, on the 14th of the second month. Jewish tradition calls it Pesach Sheni, “Second Passover,” and it is still marked lightly today (some eat a piece of matzah on the day). Israel's kings used the provision at national scale: Hezekiah's great Passover was held in the second month on exactly this ground (2 Chronicles 30).
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
IN THE SECOND YEAR AFTER THEIR COMING OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT, IN THE FIRST MONTH. From here the Rabbis have deduced the principle: 58 Sifre Beha’alothcha. Pesachim 6b.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Sources: Mishnah Pesachim 9:1 (who keeps the Second Passover) · 2 Chronicles 30 (the provision used nationally)
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְיַעֲשׂ֧וּ | veyaasu | <and> let them observe | H6213 → | 2628 times |
| בְנֵי־ | venei- | [the] people of | H1121 → | 4930 times |
| יִשְׂרָאֵ֛ל | yisrael | Israel | H3478 → | 2507 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| הַפָּ֖סַח | hapasach | the passover | H6453 → | 49 times |
| בְּמוֹעֲדֽוֹ׃ | bemoado | at appointed time its | H4150 → | 223 times |
וְיַעֲשׂ֧וּ<and> let them observe
veyaasuH6213 →2628 times
בְנֵי־[the] people of
venei-H1121 →4930 times
יִשְׂרָאֵ֛לIsrael
yisraelH3478 →2507 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
הַפָּ֖סַחthe passover
hapasachH6453 →49 times
בְּמוֹעֲדֽוֹ׃at appointed time its
bemoadoH4150 →223 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Leviticus 23:5The Passover to the LORD begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month.
it leads to
- Joshua 5:10
On the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, while the Israelites were camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they kept the Passover.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Deuteronomy 16:1–8
Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover to the LORD your God, because in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night.
- Numbers 28:16–17
The fourteenth day of the first month is the LORD’s Passover.
- Exodus 12:2–14
“This month is the beginning of months for you; it shall be the first month of your year.
- Exodus 12:18–19
In the first month you are to eat unleavened bread, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day.
- Joshua 5:10
Through
2 Chronicles 35:1Then Josiah celebrated the Passover to the LORD in Jerusalem, and the Passover lamb was slaughtered on the fourteenth day of the first month.
it leads to
- Exodus 12:6
You must keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight.
- Numbers 9:3
You are to observe it at the appointed time, at twilight on the fourteenth day of this month, in accordance with its statutes and ordinances.”
- Exodus 12:6
Through
Ezra 6:19On the fourteenth day of the first month, the exiles kept the Passover.
it leads to
- Exodus 12:6–36
You must keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight.
- Exodus 12:6–36
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Numbers
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763).