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Numbers 9:21

in Numbers 9

Sometimes the cloud remained only from evening until morning, and when it lifted in the morning, they would set out. Whether it was by day or by night, when the cloud was taken up, they would set out.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And sometimes the cloud was from evening until morning; and when the cloud was taken up in the morning, they journeyed: or if it continued by day and by night, when the cloud was taken up, they journeyed.

KJV

And so it was, when the cloud abode from even unto the morning, and that the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they journeyed: whether it was by day or by night that the cloud was taken up, they journeyed.

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This verse in Numbers 9

Commentary

5 notes on this verse

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

Whether - by day or by night - As the heat of the day is very severe in that same desert, the night season is sometimes chosen for the performance of a journey; though it is very likely that in the case of the Israelites this was seldom resorted to.

This site's exposition

when the cloud was a few days upon

on Numbers 9:20-21

The terms run short here, a few days at a time, and verse 21 gives the shortest of them, a single night with the cloud lifting in the morning. The rest of that verse takes away any pattern at all, since the signal could come by day or by night. Clarke observes that marching after dark was seldom resorted to in that desert, which is part of what makes the camp order of Numbers 2 and the assigned Levite loads of Numbers 4 the working answer to a signal that came at any hour.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices

A commentator

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)

proposed

When the cloud abode - This is repeated again and again, because it was a constant miracle, and because it is a matter we should take particular notice of, as highly significant and instructive.
And so it was when the cloud abode from even unto the morning,....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

And for the same reason we are kept at uncertainty concerning the time of our putting off the earthly house of this tabernacle, that we may be always ready to remove at the commandment of the Lord.

The words behind it

17 Hebrew words

Every 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.

  • וְיֵ֞שׁand there

    veyeshH3426 →140 times

  • אֲשֶׁר־[was] when

    ʾasher-H834 →5497 times

  • יִהְיֶ֤הit was

    yihyehH1961 →3559 times

  • הֶֽעָנָן֙the cloud

    heananH6051 →87 times

  • מֵעֶ֣רֶבfrom evening

    meerevH6153 →134 times

  • עַד־until

    ʾad-H5704 →1261 times

  • בֹּ֔קֶרmorning

    bokerH1242 →214 times

  • וְנַעֲלָ֧הand it was taken up

    venaalahH5927 →890 times

  • הֶֽעָנָ֛ןthe cloud

    heananH6051 →87 times

  • בַּבֹּ֖קֶרin the morning

    babokerH1242 →214 times

  • וְנָסָ֑עוּand they set out

    venasauH5265 →146 times

  • א֚וֹor

    ʾoH176 →321 times

  • יוֹמָ֣םby day

    yomamH3119 →50 times

  • וָלַ֔יְלָהand night

    valaylahH3915 →233 times

  • וְנַעֲלָ֥הand it was taken up

    venaalahH5927 →890 times

  • הֶעָנָ֖ןthe cloud

    heananH6051 →87 times

  • וְנָסָֽעוּ׃and they set out

    venasauH5265 →146 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

2 in all, six open

The walk

8 stops

Each 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

    Nehemiah 9:19

    You in Your great compassion did not forsake them in the wilderness. By day the pillar of cloud never turned away from guiding them on their path; and by the night the pillar of…

    it leads to

    • Psalms 106:45

      And He remembered His covenant with them, and relented by the abundance of His loving devotion.

    • Nehemiah 9:27

      So You delivered them into the hands of enemies who oppressed them, and in their time of distress they cried out to You. From heaven You heard them, and in Your great compassion You…

    • Nehemiah 9:12

      You led them with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, to light for them the way in which they should travel.

    • Malachi 3:6

      “Because I, the LORD, do not change, you descendants of Jacob have not been destroyed.

    • Daniel 9:9

      To the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness, even though we have rebelled against Him

  • Through

    Nehemiah 9:12

    You led them with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, to light for them the way in which they should travel.

    it leads to

    • Exodus 13:21–22

      And the LORD went before them in a pillar of cloud to guide their way by day, and in a pillar of fire to give them light by night, so that they could travel…

    • Nehemiah 9:19

      You in Your great compassion did not forsake them in the wilderness. By day the pillar of cloud never turned away from guiding them on their path; and by the night the pillar of…

    • Psalms 143:8

      Let me hear Your loving devotion in the morning, for I have put my trust in You. Teach me the way I should walk, for to You I lift up my soul.

Where this verse is studied

On this page

Studies1

About Numbers

The Bronze Serpent, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
The Bronze Serpent, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Numbers: the study guide →Read Numbers 9 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Numbers 9 →